Artwork
Flowers and Fruit on a Table
Flowers and Fruit on a Table is an oil painting by Jens Juel. It dates from 1796 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Flowers and Fruit on a Table is a still life in which Jens Juel arranges a modest selection of produce on a tabletop, including an apple, a peach, grapes, and hazelnuts, together with a vase and a butterfly. The combination of ripe fruit, gathered nuts, and cut flowers in a vase is a conventional Danish and Northern European still-life vocabulary rooted in older Dutch and Flemish traditions, where such objects carried emblematic weight rather than functioning as pure description.
The fruit and hazelnuts evoke abundance and the bounty of late-summer or early-autumn harvest, while the butterfly is a longstanding symbol of the soul and of transformation and transience. Paired with cut blooms and gathered fruit, the butterfly reinforces a vanitas reading: the beauty of the natural world is fleeting, and even the most carefully composed arrangement will fade. Juel's restrained, naturalistic handling of these motifs in 1796 aligns the work with this contemplative tradition, presenting the everyday objects of a domestic table as prompts for reflection on impermanence.
Technique & Style
Flowers and Fruit on a Table is executed in oil paint on canvas, a standard support for Jens Juel's still-life work of this period.
Flowers and Fruit on a Table is executed in oil paint on canvas, a standard support for Jens Juel's still-life work of this period. The relatively modest dimensions, 27.5 by 39.5 cm, are consistent with an intimate cabinet-picture scale rather than a large decorative panel.
Stylistically, the composition belongs to the still-life genre, arranging apples, peaches, grapes, hazelnuts, a vase, and a butterfly into a single tabletop grouping. The inclusion of cultivated fruit alongside wild nuts and a transient butterfly reflects the conventional late-eighteenth-century Northern European still-life vocabulary of perishability and natural abundance, handled here in a restrained, observational mode rather than a Baroque display of opulence.
History & Provenance
The still life Flowers and Fruit on a Table was painted by Jens Juel in 1796. It is held in the collection of Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, under accession number KMSsp555, and measures 27.5 cm in height by 39.5 cm in width. It has been exhibited nationally, including in the museum's 2010 display "Danish Still Life from the 17th to the 19th Century," where it was shown under its Danish title Blomster og frugter på et bord.
Context
Flowers and Fruit on a Table is an oil on canvas still-life painted by Jens Juel in 1796. The work measures 27.5 cm by 39.5 cm and is housed in the Statens Museum for Kunst as part of its permanent collection. It depicts an arranged composition of apples, peaches, grapes, hazelnuts, a vase, and a butterfly, illustrating the careful observation characteristic of late-18th-century Danish art.
As a genre piece classified as a still life, the painting reflects the period's interest in domestic abundance and the precise rendering of natural motifs within the artist's broader oeuvre of portraiture and decorative subjects.
Overview
Jens Juel, a prominent Danish artist of the late 18th century, created Flowers and Fruit on a Table in 1796. This oil painting represents a still life, a genre less common in his oeuvre compared to the portraiture for which he is primarily recognized. The work showcases his skill beyond his celebrated depictions of individuals, offering a glimpse into his broader artistic capabilities.
Artist & collection
Artist
Jens Juel (12 May 1745 – 27 December 1802) was a Danish painter, primarily known for his many portraits, of which the largest collection is on display at Frederiksborg Castle.
