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Overview

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/spanish-painting-15th-19th-centuries.pdf

Inscription

lower right: Juan vanderHamen i Leon / fat 1627

Provenance

Possibly Diego de Messía Felípez de Guzmán, Marquès de Leganés, Madrid, 1655.[1] Private collection, Florence, by 1950.[2] (Victor Spark, New York), at least 1952 to 1954.[3] (David M. Koetser Gallery, New York, London, and Zurich);[4] purchased 1955 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1961 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1952
La Nature morte de l'antiquité à nos jours, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1952, no. 72, pl. 28.
1985
Spanish Still Life in the Golden Age 1600-1650, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; The Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, 1985, no. 17, color pl. 17.
1995
Spanish Still Life from Velázquez to Goya, The National Gallery, London, 1995, no. 13, repro.
1999
El Bodegón Español [De Zurbarán a Picasso], Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1999-2000, no. 12, repro.
2005
El Alma de España [The Soul of Spain], The Albuquerque Museum, 2005, no. 21, repro.
2008
El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, 2008, no. 63, repro.
2010
In the Presence of Things: Four Centuries of European Still Life Painting. Part One: 17th-18th Centuries, Fundaçäo Calouste Gulbenkian, Exhibition Gallery, Lisbon, 2010, no. 28, repro.

Technical Summary

The support is a medium-fine weight, plain-weave fabric which has been lined
to a plain-weave, double-threaded support. A thin red ground is applied overall, over
which the paint is applied in thin, opaque rich-paste layers. Although the paint is
worked in a wet-in-wet technique to create smooth tonal transitions, the artist uses low
striated brush strokes, giving the surface a delicately textured unity. The painting is
moderately abraded overall, particularly in the dark background, and the impasto is
flattened. Minute spots of retouch, applied over the abrasion in the background, have
become discolored and light. The painting was relined, cleaned, and treated in 1955.

Bibliography

1950
Longhi, Roberto. "Un momento importante nella storia della `Natura Morta'." Paragone 1 (1950): 34-39, pl. 16.
1954
Gwynne-Jones, Allan. Introduction to Still-Life. London, 1954: 66-67, no. 59.
1956
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 104, no. 37, repro.
1956
Walker, John. "The Nation's Newest Old Masters." The National Geographic Magazine 110, no. 5 (November 1956): color repro. 641, 646.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 126, as Still Life.
1958
Gaya Nuño, Juan Anotonio. La pintura española fuera de España; historia y catàlogo. Madrid, 1958: 209, no. 1454.
1959
Kubler, George, and Martin Soria. Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and Their American Dominions, 1500-1800. Baltimore, 1959: 235, pl. 122a.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 272, repro., as Still Life.
1959
Soria, Martin. "Notas sobre algunos bodegones españoles del siglo XVII." Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 32 (1959): 273-280.
1960
Evans, Grose. Spanish Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Ten in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 22, color repro., as Still Life.
1964
Jordan, William B. "Juan van der Hamen y León: A Madrilenian Still-Life Painter." Marysas 12 (1964-1965): 52-59, fig. 16.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 66, as Still Life.
1967
Jordan, William B. "Juan van der Hamen y León." Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1967: 333, no. 16, fig. 34.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 58, repro., as Still Life.
1970
Bergström, Ingvar. Maestros españoles de bodegones y floreros. Madrid, 1970: 36.
1971
Angulo Iñiguez, Diego. Pintura española del siglo XVII. Ars Hispaniae, 15. Madrid, 1971: 29.
1973
Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 89.
1974
Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. "Caravaggio y los Caravaggistas en la pintura española." In Colloquio sul tema Caravaggio e i Caravaggeschi. Rome, 1974: 57-85, fig. 12.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 172, repro., as Still Life.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 206-207, fig. 202.
1979
Held, Jutta. "Verzicht und Zeremoniell: zu Stilleben von Sánchez Cotán und van der Hamen." Stilleben in Europa. Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte. Munster, 1979-1980: 390-394, repro. 391.
1983
Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. Pintura española de bodegones y floreros. Exh. cat. Prado, Madrid, 1983: 42, repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 247, no. 311, color repro., as Still Life.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 198, repro., as Still Life
1990
Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 84-87, color repro. 85.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 83, repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: v, 152-153, 166-167, no. 127, color repros.
2006
Cherry, Peter. Luis Meléndez: Still-Life Painter. Madrid, 2006: 95, 96, fig. 78.
2006
Rosenberg, Pierre. Only in America: One Hundred Paintings in American Museums Unmatched in European Collections. Milan, 2006: 86-87, 236, 239, color fig.

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