Artwork
A Basket and Birds
A Basket and Birds is an oil painting by the Flemish Baroque painting artist Jan Fyt. It dates from 1646 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Blodgett, the work exemplifies the genre's focus on everyday materiality together with the artist's interest in the realistic rendering of light and surface.
A Basket and Birds, painted by Jan Fyt in 1646, is an oil on canvas still life. It portrays a woven basket with small birds, a composition typical of seventeenth-century Flemish still-life painting. The subject centers on the basket and the birds, arranged to emphasize texture and spatial depth.
Part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection and formerly owned by William T. Blodgett, the work exemplifies the genre's focus on everyday materiality together with the artist's interest in the realistic rendering of light and surface.
Technique & Style
The painting is executed in oil on canvas, a standard support for Flemish still lifes of the mid-seventeenth century. The handling is precise and linear, with careful attention to textures such as feathers and woven basketry, rendered through controlled, fine brushwork. The composition balances naturalistic detail with a restrained arrangement, anchoring the basket centrally with the birds posed around it.
Warm, muted tones dominate the palette, punctuated by highlights on the birds' plumage, creating subtle contrasts that enhance the still life's quiet monumentality.
History & Provenance
The still life A Basket and Birds was created by Jan Fyt in 1646, the date inscribed on the work. It was later owned by William T. Blodgett and entered the Metropolitan Museum of Art by the late nineteenth century, where it remains. The Met records its dimensions as 60.3 by 76.8 cm.
Overview
Jan Fyt, a Flemish Baroque painter from the 17th century, created A Basket and Birds in 1646. This oil painting is a still life, characteristic of Fyt's specialization in depicting game and natural elements. The work features a collection of birds, some appearing recently hunted, arranged around a basket.
It is currently part of the collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, representing a notable example of the artist's output.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Jan Fijt, Jan Fijt or Johannes Fijt (or Fyt) (19 August 1609 – 11 September 1661) was a Flemish Baroque painter, draughtsman and etcher.
