Terms and conditions of use
Still life with glasses and fruit
(1663)
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Measurements
- 53.0 × 43.7 cm
- Accession Number
- 1251-3
- Department
- International Painting
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1922
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited - Gallery location
- 17th Century & Flemish Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International - About this work
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In Dutch Baroque still life painting, the presence of fruit, particularly citrus fruit, contained multiple layers of meaning. Such exotic fruits, often rare in colder climates, reflected wealth and status. The presence of an orange in a painting may also have reflected the patron’s support of the politically powerful House of Orange-Nassau. This took on particular significance in the 1660s when only two of the seven provinces of Holland were under the rule of the House of Orange. Painting fruit also allowed the artists to display their technical mastery by capturing the various textures of peeled and whole oranges and lemons, as Willem Kalf has achieved here.
- Subjects (general)
- Still Lifes
- Subjects (specific)
- drinking glasses fruit pieces glassware goblets oranges (fruits)