1858
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Still Life with Herring, Bread, and Cheese is a 1858 unspecified by Alexandre Gabriel Decamps, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see two smoked herrings, a chunk of bread, a wedge of cheese, a silver goblet, and a clay pitcher on a dark table. Decamps painted this for his own dining room—one of a series showing different parts of a meal. The way light skips across the fish skin, the bread’s crust, and the goblet’s shine makes every texture feel real enough to touch. Look up *impasto* to see how thick paint can make surfaces pop like this.
This painting forms a pair with the Still Life with Pipe and Matches . Along with several other paintings, they decorated the dining room of the artist's home, each painting representing a different stage of a meal. In this composition the artist focused his attention on rendering textures, which are as varied as the objects themselves: the skin of the smoked herrings, whose highlights echo the silver of the goblet and the cover of the pitcher; the spongy surface of the bread; the velvety crust of the cheese; and finally the soft wood surface (pine?) that supports this still life. The Latin…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps was a French painter noted for his Orientalist works.
See the richer artist pageYour cart is empty
Explore artworks →
