Artwork
Still Life with Fruit and Birds
Still Life with Fruit and Birds is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Peeter Gijsels. It dates from 1663 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Technique & Style
These formal qualities underscore the composition’s balanced arrangement and naturalistic detail, characteristic of 17th-century Flemish still-life traditions.
Peeter Gijsels painted Still Life with Fruit and Birds in 1663 using oil paint applied to a wooden panel. The work measures 34 cm in height by 45.5 cm in width and exemplifies the Baroque still-life genre through its meticulous rendering of fruit and birds. The painting’s surface retains its original luminosity, reflecting the artist’s precise handling of light and texture, while the panel support remains stable with no significant structural issues noted in conservation records. These formal qualities underscore the composition’s balanced arrangement and naturalistic detail, characteristic of 17th-century Flemish still-life traditions.
History & Provenance
Still Life with Fruit and Birds was painted in 1663 by the Flemish artist Peeter Gijsels, executed in oil on panel. The work entered the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst, where it remains today. No earlier ownership, commission, or provenance details are recorded in the available sources.
The painting is held by the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen. Its inventory record there is listed as accession number KMSsp 725.
It was included in the museum’s 2005 exhibition Dutch and Flemish Still Lifes from the Collection, where it was displayed under the title Still Life with Fruit and Birds.
Overview
Peeter Gijsels, a Flemish painter active in Antwerp during the mid‑seventeenth century, completed the oil painting Still Life with Fruit and Birds in 1663. Executed in the Baroque idiom, the work belongs to the Dutch Golden Age tradition of elaborate still‑life compositions. It is presently owned by the Statens Museum for Kunst.
Subject & Meaning
The canvas presents a densely arranged banquet on a darkened tabletop. A wicker basket overflows with vivid oranges, while pears, apples, and a cluster of grapes lie nearby. A lobster is partially concealed beneath a draped cloth, a metal pitcher gleams beside the fruit, and a lifeless bird with intact feathers rests among the items, suggesting themes of abundance and mortality.
Context
In the mid‑1600s, Flemish artists often combined lavish displays of food with symbolic elements, reflecting both the prosperity of the Dutch Golden Age and moralizing messages about the fleeting nature of pleasure. Gijsels’s work aligns with this tradition, echoing the detailed, decorative still‑life approach popularized by his predecessor Jan Brueghel the Elder.
Artist & collection
Artist
Peeter Gijsels or Pieter Gijsels (1621, Antwerp – 1690, Antwerp), was a Flemish Baroque painter.
