Still Life with Ham

1650

Gerret Willemsz Heda

Painter, Dutch, active 1640s and 1650s

Pewter and silver plates and vessels, a baked ham, roll of bread, and a rumpled, pearl-white cloth are arranged across a table covered with a dark, olive-green cloth in this vertical still life painting. The table extends into the scene from the right and ends just short of the left edge of the composition. The scrunched white cloth falls down the front side of the table, and many of the objects are arranged on it or around its perimeter. To our left, one lip of a pewter plate hangs over the edge of the table and another lies on the white cloth. Two glasses with thick, textured stems and yellow liquid in straight, flaring bowls sit on the plate. Another plate holds a partially carved ham just behind and to our right of the first. The skin of the animal has been peeled back to show the bubbled, white underside. The flesh is white around the edge of the roast and pink at the center. A tall, narrow, clear fluted glass with an intricately woven stem is next to a pewter pitcher with its lid propped open to rest up against the handle. Next, a silver salt cellar has a lobed base that curves in and up to a scallop-edged platform. Another lobed vessel, this one with a handle and a hinged lid, lies open on its side across two overlapping plates at the front of the table. The spiraling end of a utensil protrudes from the vessel. A glass textured with raised dashes is a third filled with amber-colored liquid behind the salt cellar and stacked plates. A roll of bread and a knife with rest in the folds of the white cloth. Turned knobs of the table legs are visible in the gap between the fringe of the green tablecloth and the bottom edge of the composition. The background is an earthy, pale olive green.

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The array of objects in this tabletop still life by Gerret Willemsz Heda, including an elaborate salt cellar, a pewter pitcher, a tall fluted glass, and the prominent ham, evokes the prosperity the Dutch enjoyed around the middle of the seventeenth century. The white linen tablecloth is crumpled so that various objects nestle in its folds, which allows the artist to show off his skill in depicting drapery and the sheen of linen through varied effects of light and shade. The partially consumed food and drinks and the disarray of the cloth give the impression that people have just stepped away from the table.

Gerret was the son and pupil of the great still-life master Willem Claesz Heda (1594-1680). In his choice of subject matter, style, and ability, Gerret compares sufficiently close to his father that it is not always easy to distinguish between the two. Still Life with Ham, signed and dated "HEDA 1650," initially entered the National Gallery’s collection as a work by Willem, but subtle differences in style and concept point to the talented hand of Gerret. Still Life with Ham ranks among Gerret’s finest works.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 50

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Gift of John S. Thacher

  • Dimensions

    overall: 98.5 x 82.5 cm (38 3/4 x 32 1/2 in.)
    framed: 123.2 x 108 x 8.9 cm (48 1/2 x 42 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1985.16.1

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Still Life with Ham, 1650

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

John S. Thacher [1904-1982], Washington, D.C.; bequest 1985 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1997

  • Rembrandt and the Golden Age: Dutch Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, 1997, unnumbered brochure, repro.

2002

  • Matters of Taste: Food and Drink in 17th Century Dutch Art and Life, Albany Institute of History and Art, 2002, no. 23, repro.

2004

  • Pieter Claesz: Master of Haarlem Still Life, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; Kunsthaus Zürich; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2004-2005, not in catalogue (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1986

  • Sutton, Peter C. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids and Kampen, 1986: 309.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 96-98, color repro. 97.

1997

  • Hess, Catherine and Timothy Husband. European Glass in The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1997: no. 50j, repro.

  • Chrysler Museum of Art. Rembrandt and the Golden Age: Dutch paintings from the National Gallery of Art. Exh. brochure. Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk. Washington, 1997: unnumbered repro.

2000

  • Meijer, Fred G. "Review of three books on still-life paintings " _Oud Holland _ 114, no. 2/4 (2000): 233, fig. 7, repro; and 236, note 37, as by both Gerret Willemsz Heda and Willem Claesz Heda.

  • Meijer, Fred G. "Boekbespreking van...[three books related to still-life paintings, primarily from the Netherlands]." Oud Holland 114, no. 2/4 (2000): 233, fig. 7, 236 n. 37, as by Gerret Willemsz Heda and Willem Claesz Heda.

2002

  • Barnes, Donna R., and Peter G. Rose. Matters of Taste: Food and drink in seventeenth-century Dutch art and life. Exh. cat. Albany Institute of History & Art. Syracuse, 2002: 74-75, no. 23, repro.

2003

  • Gregory, Quint (Henry D. Gregory V). "Tabletop still lifes in Haarlem, c. 1610-1660: a study of the relationships between form and meaning." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, 2003: 3-18, 172, 201.

Inscriptions

on the right edge of the tablecloth: .HEDA. 1650

Wikidata ID

Q20177352

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