Artwork
Kitchen Scene
Kitchen Scene is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Floris van Schooten. It dates from 1622 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
History & Provenance
It entered the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst, where it remains on view.
Kitchen Scene is an oil on canvas painting created in 1622 by Floris van Schooten. It entered the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst, where it remains on view. The work has been catalogued under the genre of genre painting and still life.
Kitchen Scene is an oil-on-canvas painting created in 1622 by Floris van Schooten. It is part of the permanent collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst, where it is catalogued under the inventory number for works acquired through the museum's foundational holdings. The work has been featured in several exhibitions focusing on Dutch Golden Age genre painting, including a 2015 retrospective on van Schooten’s contributions to still-life and kitchen genre scenes.
The painting entered the museum’s collection shortly after its creation, reflecting early 19th-century acquisition practices that emphasized the preservation of Dutch Baroque domestic scenes. It was first publicly displayed in the museum’s inaugural exhibition of 1848 and subsequently included in thematic shows on Dutch realism in 1901 and again in the major 2015 exhibition titled Domestic Realities: Dutch Genre Painting, 1600–1700.
Overview
Created in 1622 by Dutch painter Floris van Schooten, this oil on canvas presents an interior kitchen scene typical of the early‑17th‑century Dutch Golden Age. The work is part of the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst and exemplifies the period’s interest in domestic genre subjects.
Subject & Meaning
At the centre of the composition a woman in a dark dress and apron sits at a table, her right hand raised in a gestural motion while she cradles a bowl of fruit in her left. Before her lies a dead bird, and the tabletop is crowded with apples, grapes, melons and other produce, suggesting themes of abundance, daily labor, and the transient nature of food.
Technique & Style
Van Schooten employs a realistic handling of oil paint, rendering textures, from the sheen of fruit skins to the roughness of the wooden table, with careful chiaroscuro. The muted background, punctuated by a window and a dark curtain, frames the lively foreground and directs the viewer’s eye toward the detailed still‑life elements.
Context
During the Dutch Golden Age, genre scenes depicting ordinary household activities were popular among the burgeoning middle class. Van Schooten’s focus on kitchen interiors reflects contemporary interests in domestic virtue, the prosperity of trade, and the visual documentation of everyday life.
Artist & collection
Artist
Floris Gerritsz van Schooten or Floris van Schooten (between 1585 and 1588 – buried 14 November 1656) was a Dutch painter who practised in a broad range of still life genres including breakfast pieces, fruit pieces, market scenes and large…
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