The Chinese porcelain bowl and Turkish carpet in this still life would both have been luxurious imports, here nonchalantly placed with wine and fruit on a wooden table. The bowl, a lemon peel spilling over its lip, balances on a piece of bread, animating the static arrangement of the objects. According to Gerard de Lairesse, a painter and writer of the next generation, Kalf "surpassed others in still life," although "he never . . . knew how to explain his images, why he depicted this or that, but simply [painted] whatever took his fancy."
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): W.KALF 1659.
Gräfin von Althann, Austria (?about 1725); by family descent through the eldest daughter in each generation to Martha Freifrau von Schönau-Wehr, born Freiin von und zu Menzingen, Untermünstertal, near Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden (1917–d. 1939); her daughter, Hildegard Freifrau von Kittlitz und Ottendorf, Untermünstertal (from 1939); her son, Wilhelm Freiherr von Kittlitz und Ottendorf, Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden (until 1950; sale, Pfister, Freiburg im Breisgau, October 25–26, 1950, no. 517); [Otto Wertheimer, Paris, until 1951; sold to Knoedler]; [Knoedler, New York, 1951–53; sold to The Met]
Corning, N.Y. Corning Museum of Glass. "Glass Vessels in Dutch Painting of the 17th Century," August 15–October 1, 1952, no. 7 (of paintings; as "Nature Morte," lent by M. Knoedler & Co.).
Fort Worth Art Center. "An Exhibition of Old Masters," January 20–February 6, 1953, no. 9 (lent by Knoedler Galleries, New York).
Indianapolis Museum of Art. "Treasures from the Metropolitan," October 25, 1970–January 3, 1971, no. 71.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Painter's Light," October 5–November 10, 1971, no. 22.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Blue & White: Early Japanese Export Ware," November 23, 1976–September 6, 1977, no. 16.
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.
Toronto. Aga Khan Museum. "A Thirst for Riches: Carpets from the East in Paintings from the West," June 6–October 18, 2015, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met," October 16, 2018–October 4, 2020, no catalogue.
Thomas S. Buechner. Glass Vessels in Dutch Painting of the 17th Century. Exh. cat., Corning Museum of Glass. Corning, N.Y., 1952, pp. 25–26, 30, no. 7, discusses the types of glassware that appear in the painting.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 56.
Lucius Grisebach. Letter to Margaretta Salinger. January 27, 1970, provides extensive provenance information.
John Walsh Jr. "Vermeer." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 31 (Summer 1973), unpaginated, fig. 26, compares it to the still life passage in Vermeer's "Woman Reading a Letter" (Gemäldegalerie, Dresden).
Lucius Grisebach. Willem Kalf, 1619–1693. Berlin, 1974, pp. 114–15, 122, 130, 147–48, 156, 158, 254, no. 94, fig. 103, includes it in a group of paintings believed to be painted in Amsterdam between 1656 and 1659, all of which have similar motifs or equally carefully constructed designs.
Martin Lerner. Blue & White: Early Japanese Export Ware. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1978, unpaginated, under no. 9, no. 16, is "almost certain" that the bowl that appears in the painting is a Chinese Wan-li (Ming dynasty) dish; compares it with a dish of the same type also in the Museum's collection (19.136.13).
Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, pp. 349–50, fig. 628 (color), cites it as an example of the "monumental, even grandiose" later Dutch still-life paintings; notes its opulence and "sensitivity to color and texture".
Peter C. Sutton. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids, Mich., 1986, p. 190.
Ivan Gaskell. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Seventeenth Century Dutch and Flemish Painting. London, 1990, p. 70, under no. 9, mentions it in relation to another Kalf still life with a Chinese bowl and glass in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; notes that these motifs appear regularly in Kalf's work.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 326, ill.
Fred G. Meijer. The Collection of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Paintings Bequeathed by Daisy Linda Ward. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 2003, p. 227, notes similar motifs in a still life by Kalf in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; claims erroneously that both paintings show the same bowl.
Esmée Quodbach. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 65 (Summer 2007), p. 50.
Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. xi, 34, 387, 390–92, no. 97, colorpl. 97.
Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch, Leiden 1606–1669 Amsterdam)
ca. 1654
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