Artwork
Still Life with Small Game, Basket of Fruit, Goldfinches and a Squirrel
Still Life with Small Game, Basket of Fruit, Goldfinches and a Squirrel is an oil painting by the Flemish Baroque painting artist Frans Snyders. It dates from 1625 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Technique & Style
The composition balances dynamic diagonal movement with precise spatial depth, reflecting Snyders' mastery of animal and food depiction.
The painting is executed in oil on canvas, characteristic of Flemish Baroque still-life practice, with careful rendering of fruit, game, and birds that emphasizes texture and naturalistic detail. The composition balances dynamic diagonal movement with precise spatial depth, reflecting Snyders' mastery of animal and food depiction. The work is housed in the Statens Museum for Kunst, where it remains part of their collection of 17th-century Flemish paintings.
History & Provenance
Frans Snyders created the oil-on-canvas painting Still Life with Small Game, Basket of Fruit, Goldfinches and a Squirrel in 1625. The work is a representative example of the Flemish Baroque still-life genre. It is currently held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
The painting Still Life with Small Game, Basket of Fruit, Goldfinches and a Squirrel by Frans Snyders is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen. The work, created in 1625, is an oil on canvas piece classified within the Flemish Baroque movement. While the sources confirm its current location and creation date, no specific inventory or accession number is provided in the available records. Furthermore, the provided information does not list any past or future exhibition history for this specific artwork.
Context
The work belongs to the early phase of Flemish Baroque still life painting, a genre in which Snyders specialized alongside contemporaries such as Jan Davidsz. de Heem and Alexander Adriaenssen. Contemporary accounts note his skill in rendering game and fruit with vivid naturalism, a reputation that informed later assessments of his contribution to the development of the genre. Modern scholarship situates this painting within the broader trajectory of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish still life, emphasizing its role in the evolution of compositional complexity and the depiction of perishable subjects.
The painting remains part of the collection at Statens Museum for Kunst, where it is studied as an example of Snyders' influence on later still life artists.
Overview
Still Life with Small Game, Basket of Fruit, Goldfinches and a Squirrel is a 1625 oil painting by Frans Snyders, exemplifying the Flemish Baroque style. The composition combines hunting spoils with domestic still life elements, creating a vibrant tableau.
Subject & Meaning
The painting depicts the aftermath of a hunt on a table, with dead game birds, a partially consumed roasted bird, scattered feathers, and bones. A central basket overflows with grapes and plums, while a plate of pastries and a curious, lifelike squirrel add layers of meaning, contrasting abundance with consumption.
Artist & collection
Artist
Frans Snyders or Frans Snijders was a Flemish painter of animals, hunting scenes, market scenes, and still lifes.
Still life of fruit in a basket together with game, a bowl of fraises-de-bois, artichokes, asparagus and a squirrel upon a table draped with a red cloth
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