Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings Signed (left, on table): ·AVB· [monogram] f
Gallery Label Van Beyeren was mostly active in his native city of The Hague but he lived in nearby Delft from 1657 to 1663 and in Amsterdam from 1669 to 1674. He was obviously familiar with still life painting in several art centers; in this panel of the 1650s the composition and motifs recall Jan Davidsz de Heem's approximately contemporary work in Antwerp but the Rembrandtesque light is probably adopted from the celebrated Amsterdam specialist Willem Kalf. The exotic vessels and delicacies seem equally well suited to the tastes of Amsterdam patricians and of courtiers at The Hague. In this context, the watch, suggesting temperance, strikes one as an obligatory footnote. Van Beyeren's palette was usually understated but this painting has lost some local color with age.
Provenance [Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna; sold to private collection, Vienna]; private collection, Vienna, and later Greenwich, Conn. (by 1938–71; seized in Paris by the Nazis, held at Alt Aussee [1074/3] and at Munich collecting point [1275], returned to France October 30 1946; restituted; given by owner to MMA)
Exhibition History New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.
References [Claus Virch]. Paintings in the Collection of Charles and Edith Neuman de Végvár . [New York], [1970], p. 3. John Walsh Jr. "New Dutch Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum." Apollo 99 (May 1974), pp. 348–49, fig. 12. Anthony M. Clark in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1965–1975 . New York, 1975, p. 92, ill. Peter C. Sutton. A Guide to Dutch Art in America . Grand Rapids, Mich., 1986, pp. 190. Erika Gemar-Koeltzsch. Luca Bild-Lexikon: Holländische Stillebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert . Lingen, Germany, 1995, vol. 2, p. 104, no. 28/38, ill. Fred G. Meijer. The Collection of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Paintings Bequeathed by Daisy Linda Ward . Zwolle, The Netherlands, 2003, p. 165. Adriaan van der Willigen and Fred G. Meijer. A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Painters Working in Oils, 1525–1725 . Leiden, 2003, p. 33. Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art . New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. xi, 32–34, 119, 321, no. 7, colorpl. 7.