Artwork
Still life with pewter utensils and Chinese bowls
Still life with pewter utensils and Chinese bowls is a paint painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Jan Treck. It dates from 1650 and is held in the collection of the Gemäldegalerie Berlin.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
According to the catalogue record, the depicted objects include a jug, Kraak porcelain, and a niche setting.
The painting is a still life in which pewter utensils are arranged alongside Chinese bowls. According to the catalogue record, the depicted objects include a jug, Kraak porcelain, and a niche setting. The combination of domestic pewter ware with imported Chinese porcelain reflects a typical seventeenth-century Dutch still-life theme that paired humble metalwork with prized Asian ceramics to display variety in texture, surface, and origin.
The presence of Kraak porcelain, a widely traded export ware, situates the work within the iconography of abundance and global trade that characterized mid-century Dutch still life. The niche framing device, also noted in the record, is a conventional compositional structure used to elevate everyday objects into a contemplative display, lending the utensils and bowls a sense of quiet dignity rather than mere utility.
Technique & Style
Created in 1650, the work is an oil painting executed on a canvas support. The composition is a still life depicting a niche containing a jug, Kraak porcelain, and pewter utensils. The piece measures 66 cm in height and 53 cm in width. Although once held in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin, the painting is currently considered lost.
History & Provenance
Jan Treck created the still life painting titled 'Still life with pewter utensils and Chinese bowls' in 1650. Executed in paint on canvas, the work depicts a niche containing a jug and Kraak porcelain. The painting is associated with the Gemäldegalerie Berlin, which is listed as its collection location. However, records indicate that this specific work by Treck is currently considered a lost painting.
Context
A lost work from 1650, this painting features pewter utensils alongside Kraak porcelain within a composition documented in Gemäldegalerie Berlin records. It belongs to Treck's oeuvre of still life paintings, reflecting 17th-century Dutch interest in combining domestic metalwork with Chinese export ceramics. The work was classified as a still life genre piece and attributed to Jan Jansz. Treck, an artist active in the Dutch Golden Age.
Scholarly attention to this painting remains limited due to its lost status, though its composition contributes to understanding Treck's experimentation with layered material symbolism. Contextual analysis situates it within broader Dutch still life traditions where imported porcelain signified wealth, as evidenced by its depiction alongside Dutch pewter objects.
The painting's placement in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin collection highlights its historical provenance before dispersal, while its stylistic elements align with contemporaries who integrated global trade goods into domestic scenes.
Overview
Jan Treck, a Dutch still‑life painter of the mid‑17th century, produced Still life with pewter utensils and Chinese bowls circa 1650. The composition presents a modest selection of domestic objects, a heavy jug, a white porcelain bowl, a metal tray with spoons and flat discs, set against a dark, unadorned background that emphasizes their material qualities.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Jan Jansz. Treck (1606, Amsterdam, 25 September 1652 ) was a still-life painter during the Dutch Golden Age. Treck used economy in the number of his objects.
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