Pieter Claesz (1597/98–1661), The Netherlands, Still Life (Ontbijtstuk with Berkemeyer), 1641, oil on canvas, 19 1/8 x 23 3/4 in. (48.6 x 60.3 cm), Cincinnati Art Museum; Mr. and Mrs. Harry S. Leyman Endowment and Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Walter J. Wichgar, 1987.151

Audio Description

Still Life (Ontbijtstuk) is a two-foot wide oil painting on canvas made in 1641 by the Dutch artist Pieter Claesz, who lived from 1597/98 to 1660. It was purchased with the Mr. and Mrs. Harry S. Leyman Endowment and Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Walter J. Wichgar for the Cincinnati Art Museum, where its reference number is 1987.151.

A crowded tabletop occupies the lower half of the painting positioned in front of a blank tan wall. Light falls from the left. A crisp white tablecloth covers most of the table but is folded back at the right side. There sits a large pewter coffee pot, with a drinking glass resting upside down on its spout. Another glass of the same type filled with water sits at the back right of the table. In front of the pot rests a pocket watch, its mechanism visible, and chain falling off the front edge of the table. To its left a pewter plate holds a partially peeled and sliced lemon. Behind that, at the center of the composition is a mincemeat pie broken open with a spoon to reveal the fruit filling. A sliced loaf of bread on a plate balances on the left edge of the table, behind a knife that bears the artist’s signature and date on its blade.

Label Copy

Still Life (Ontbijtstuk) is a two-foot wide oil painting on canvas made in 1641 by the Dutch artist Pieter Claesz, who lived from 1597/98 to 1660. It was purchased with the Mr. and Mrs. Harry S. Leyman Endowment and Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Walter J. Wichgar for the Cincinnati Art Museum, where its reference number is 1987.151.

The 1600s saw the birth of still life as a genre of painting sanctioned within art theory and much in demand among art collectors. The Dutch painter Pieter Claesz was one of the creators of the breakfast piece (Ontbijtstuk), a type of still life that presented a graceful table-top arrangement of a simple, partly eaten meal painted in a subdued, almost monochrome palette.

Read as a vanitas, the unfinished meal and the watch remind the viewer of mortality and the uncertainty of life. But much of the appeal undeniably came from the painter’s ability to depict everyday objects realistically. The textures of cloth, bread and fruit peel, the reflectivity of metal and translucency of glass continued to be qualities that challenged and entranced artists and viewers alike into the 1800s.

Back to the Audio Exhibition