Still Life with Sweets and Pottery
Still Life with Sweets and Pottery
- Artist
- Juan van der Hamen y León
- Artist Dates
- 1596-1631
- Artist Nationality
- Spanish
- Title
- Still Life with Sweets and Pottery
- Date
- 1627
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 84.5 x 112.7 cm (33 1/4 x 44 3/8 in)
- K Number
- K2109
- Repository
- National Gallery of Art
- Accession Number
- 1961.9.75
- Notes
Provenance
Possibly Diego de Messía Felípez de Guzmán, Marquès de Leganés, Madrid, 1655. [1] Private collection, Florence, by 1950. [2] (Victor Spark, New York), at least 1952 to 1954. [3] (David M. Koetser Gallery, New York, London, and Zurich); [4] purchased 1955 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1961 to NGA. [1] William B. Jordan, _Spanish Still Life in the Golden Age 1600-1650_ (exh. cat., Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1985: 135), raises the possibility that this painting is identical to one owned by Leganés at his death in 1655. The marquis owned several still lifes by van der Hamen, including one described in his inventory (no. 97) as "otro banquete de la misma mano y tamaño (i.e. 2 baras poco mas o menos de alto y una y media de ancho), con cajas de conserbas, an carastillo de diferentes dulces y brearos" (another banquet of the same hand and size, with boxes of conserves, a basket of varied sweets and drinking cups). As Jordan notes, the dimensions are significantly different from those of 1961.9.75 (84.2 x 112.0 versus c. 167.2 x 135.4). He suggests that a scribe's error may be responsible for the discrepancy. Certainly the vertical dimensions seem excessive for a still life of this type. [2] Roberto Longhi, "Un momento importante nella storia dell 'Natura Morta,'" _Paragone_ 1 (1950): 34-39, pl. 16. [3] Recorded as owner in the exhibition catalogue _La nature morte de l'antiquité a nos jours_, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, April-September 1952, no. 72, and in Allan Gwynne-Jones, _Introduction to Still-Life_ (London, 1954: 66-67, no. 59). [4] Letter from David Rust to William Jordan, 6 June 1969, in NGA curatorial files.