Banquet Still Life with Roses
Artist:
Abraham van Beyeren
(Dutch, 1620/21 - 1690)
Place made:The Netherlands
General region:Europe
Culture: Dutch
Date: ca. 1665
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
51 x 43 in. (129.5 x 109.2 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by the Lillie and Roy Cullen Endowment Fund
Object number: 85.38
Signed: Unsigned
Provenance: Harald Bildt (1876-1947), Stockholm, by 1914. With H. Terry-Engell Gallery, London, by 1966. With H. Shickman Gallery, New York, by 1967; sold by H. Shickman Gallery to Christian Humann (1929-1981), Paris, probably by 1978 [note 1]; Christian Humann Estate, 1981. Sold by Newhouse Galleries, New York, to San Antonio Museum of Art, 1985.
Note 1: A 1985 letter from Newhouse Galleries to SAMA states that Christian Houmann [sic] acquired the painting from H. Shickman Gallery “some years ago.” The Frick Art Reference Library card (no. 112910) for the painting cites a letter dated 1978 as the source for the provenance: “now in a private collection, Paris.”
Label Text
A profusion of culinary delights and luxurious tableware dazzles this eye in this ornate scene displaying the good life of the wealthy merchants in seventeenth-century Holland. Yet clues within the painting carry a more serious message: food will rot or be eaten, a watch marks passing time, and indeed we all pass away. Still lives such as this reminded their viewers that earthly life, however pleasant, is fleeting, and that true riches should be sought in heaven.
Abraham van Beyeren worked in many cities in the Dutch Republic. He initially painted seascapes and still lives of fish, but artistically moved to dry land in the 1650s and ‘60s, when he created elaborate banquet scenes such as this. The Museum’s painting is nearly identical to another work by van Beyeren in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, suggesting the popularity of the composition.
(William Keyse Rudolph, 2018)
Abraham van Beyeren worked in many cities in the Dutch Republic. He initially painted seascapes and still lives of fish, but artistically moved to dry land in the 1650s and ‘60s, when he created elaborate banquet scenes such as this. The Museum’s painting is nearly identical to another work by van Beyeren in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, suggesting the popularity of the composition.
(William Keyse Rudolph, 2018)
On view
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
