Banquet Still Life

Dateca. 1653 - 55

Maker Abraham van Beyeren Dutch, ca. 1620/21-1690

Label Text

Is this glittering array a banquet about to take place or the remains of a feast? Does it whet your appetite or repel you? Or both? Contradictions are inherent in this microcosm of the riches enjoyed by seventeenth-century Holland at the height of its dominance of world trade: Chinese export ware, imported fruits, Venetian-style glassware, Dutch silver and a nautilus shell in a gilt mount. Dutch consumers reveled in these earthly pleasures, but would have recognized a cautionary tone lurking below the surface of all this casual opulence: tipped-over vessels suggest worrisome disorder, half-eaten foods will grow stale or spoil, and a watch in the foreground is a reminder that sensual pleasures are fleeting.

Object number61.146

ProvenanceFrancis Charles Hastings Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford (1819-1891), Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, England, by 1890 (published Sir George Scharf, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures at Woburn Abbey, London, 1890, p. 267, cat. no. 431, as Jan Weenix); by inheritance to George William Francis Sackville Russell, 10th Duke of Bedford (1852-1893), Woburn Abbey; by inheritance to Herbrand Arthur Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford (1858-1940), Woburn Abbey; by inheritance to Hastings William Sackville Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford (1888-1953), Woburn Abbey; [Hastings William Sackville Russell sale, Christie’s, London, January 19, 1951, p. 5, cat. no. 7]; [William Sabin]; [David M. Koetser Gallery, New York]; purchased from Koetser by Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York, January 20, 1954 (exhibited Exhibition of Art Treasures For America from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, 10 Dec 1961-4 Feb 1962, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., cat. no. 8; Fetes de la Palette, Isaac Delgado Museum of Art , New Orleans, LA, 1962-63, cat. no. 18); Seattle Art Museum, since 1954, accessioned 1961

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

Exhibition HistoryWashington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Art Treasures for America from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, Dec. 10, 1961–Feb. 4, 1962. Cat. no. 8. New Orleans, La., Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, Fetes de la Palette, Nov. 22, 1962-Jan. 5, 1963. Text by James B. Byrnes. Cat. no. 18, pl. 59 and cover, referenced in introductory essay with no page numbers. Raleigh, N.C., North Carolina Museum of Art, A Gift to America: Masterpieces of European Painting from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, Feb. 5-Apr. 24, 1994 (Houston, Tex., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May 22-Aug. 14, 1994; Seattle, Wash., Seattle Art Museum, Sept. 15-Nov. 20, 1994; San Francisco, Calif., The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Dec. 17, 1994-Mar. 4, 1995). Text by Chiyo Ishikawa et al. Cat. no. 26, pp. 174-177. Osaka, Japan, Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, The Public and the Private In the Age of Vermeer, Apr. 4-July 2, 2000. Text by Quint Gregory et al. Cat. no. 15, pp.104-107, reproduced p. 105 and detail p. 107. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Porcelain Stories: From China to Europe, Feb. 17-May 7, 2000. Text by Julie Emerson. Pl. 9.1, reproduced p. 103. Atlanta, Ga., High Museum of Art, Inspiring Impressionism: The Impressionists and the Art of the Past, Oct. 13, 2007-Jan. 13, 2008 (Denver, Colo., Denver Art Museum, Feb. 23-May 25, 2008; Seattle, Wash., Seattle Art Museum, June 19-Sept. 21, 2008). Text by Lesley Stevenson et al. Cat. no. 6, pp. 188-189, reproduced p. 189.Published Referencesvon Bode, Wilhelm Arnold. Die Meister der Hollandischen und Vlamischen Malerschulen. Leipzig: 1917. van Gelder, H.E. W.C. Heda, A. van Beyeren, W. Kalf. Palet Series. Amsterdam: H.J.W. Becht, 1941; pp. 21-38. Christie's advertisement, Burlington Magazine 92, no. 573 (December 1950): p. i. c.f. Sterling, Charles. La Nature Morte de l’Antiquité à nos jours. Paris: Tisné, 1952; p. 46. Suida, William and Richard Fuller. European Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1954; p. 64, reproduced p. 65. c.f. Bergstrom, Ingvar. Dutch Still Life Painting in the Seventeenth Century. Translated by Christina Hedstrom and Gerald Taylor. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, Inc., 1956; pp. 229-246. c.f. Francis, Henry S. “Abraham Van Beyeren: Still Life with Silver Wine Jar and Reflected Portrait of the Artist.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 47, no. 6 (November 1960): pp. 213-214. Emerson, Guy. "Kress Collection, A Gift to the Nation." National Geographic 120, no. 6 (December 1961): p. 865. Rumpf, Barbara. "Still With Us: The Still Life." Puget Soundings (November 1964): p. 27. Engagement book. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1968; week of Nov. 24-30. "The Baroque: The Age and Its Art." Filmstrip. Pleasantville, N.Y.: Warren Schloat Productions, 1968. Puget Soundings. Junior League of Seattle (December 1973): reproduced on front cover. c.f. Sullivan, Scott A. "A Banquet Piece with Vanitas Implications." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 8 (October 1974): pp. 271-282. Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools, Excluding Italian, 4 vols. London: Phaidon Press, 1977; IV, pp. 154-155. c.f. Sullivan, Scott A. "Abraham van Beyeren's ‘Visserij-bord’ in the Groote Kerk, Maassluis." Oud-Holland 101 (1987): pp. 115-125. c.f. Broos, Ben, et al. Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. Cat. The Hague, Netherlands: Mauritshuis; Zwolle, Netherlands: Waanders Publishers, 1990; pp. 159-163. c.f. Orr, Lynn Federle, et al. Rembrandt to Renoir: 300 Years of European Masterpieces from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Exh. Cat. Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland City Art Gallery in association with the National Gallery of Australia, 1993; cat. no. 14. Ishikawa, Chiyo. The Samuel H. Kress Collection at the Seattle Art Museum. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1997; fig. 43, pp. 66-69, reproduced p. 17. Miller, Jonathan. On Reflection. London: National Gallery Publications, distributed by Yale University Press, 1998; reproduced p. 42, full image and detail. Collins, Jeffrey. "Review: Porcelain Stories: From China to Europe." Eighteenth-Century Studies 34, no. 1 (Fall 2000): pp.116-120. Seattle Art Museum: Bridging Cultures. London: Scala Publishers Ltd. for the Seattle Art Museum, 2007; pp. 58-59, reproduced p. 58.

Credit LineSamuel H. Kress Collection

Dimensions42 1/8 x 45 1/2 in. (107 x 115.5 cm)

MediumOil on canvas