Artwork
Portrait of a Boy holding a Basket of Fruit
Portrait of a Boy holding a Basket of Fruit is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Jan de Bray. It dates from 1658 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting portrays a young boy cradling a basket filled with fruit, a composition that fuses portraiture with still-life elements.
The painting portrays a young boy cradling a basket filled with fruit, a composition that fuses portraiture with still-life elements. According to the catalogue record, the work explicitly depicts a boy and fruit, rendered in oil on panel. In Dutch seventeenth-century portrait practice, the inclusion of a fruit basket carried layered associations: abundance and prosperity drawn from the harvest, the sweetness of childhood, and, through the perishability of fruit, memento mori reflections on transience.
The boy's tender age paired with ripe produce visually balanced innocence against the fleeting nature of earthly pleasures.
Jan de Bray's choice to merge a child's likeness with a still-life motif is characteristic of Haarlem portraiture of the period, where sitters were often individualized through symbolic attributes rather than formal settings. The basket functions both as a portrait attribute identifying the sitter and as an emblem of domestic virtue and plenty.
History & Provenance
Portrait of a Boy holding a Basket of Fruit was painted by Jan de Bray in 1658, executed in oil on panel in Haarlem. The work later entered the collection of the Dutch collector Cornelis Johannes Karel van Aalst, who owned it before it was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where it is currently held.
The painting is held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where it is recorded under accession number 64.241.
It was included in the exhibition “Dutch and Flemish Paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,” held at the Museo del Prado, Madrid, in 1980.
Overview
Jan de Bray, a Haarlem‑based painter of the Dutch Golden Age, completed a portrait in 1658 that shows a youthful figure clutching a basket brimming with fruit. Executed in oil on canvas, the work belongs to the museum’s collection in Boston and exemplifies the period’s attention to detail and restrained composition.
Technique & Style
De Bray employs a subdued chiaroscuro, allowing a soft light to illuminate the boy’s face and the fruit while the surrounding background remains deep black. The brushwork is fine in the rendering of the hair and fabric, yet looser in the depiction of the fruit’s skin, reflecting the influence of contemporaries such as Bartholomeus van der Helst and Frans Hals.
Context
Jan de Bray worked under the artistic guidance of his father, Salomon de Bray, and was known for integrating portraiture with historical or symbolic motifs. This work reflects the mid‑seventeenth‑century Dutch interest in genre scenes that combine realistic observation with moral or allegorical undertones, a trend prevalent among Haarlem painters of the era.
Artist & collection
Artist
Jan de Bray (c. 1627 – April 4, 1697) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem until the age of 60, when he went bankrupt and moved to Amsterdam. Jan de Bray was influenced by his father Salomon…
