Artwork
Still Life with Grapes and Game
Still Life with Grapes and Game is an oil painting by the Baroque artist Frans Snyders. It dates from 1630 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
Brushwork is precise and layered, with carefully observed textures for fur, feathers, and fruit skins achieved through fine glazes and stippling.
Executed in oil on oak panel, the work measures 90.2 cm in height and 112.1 cm in width. The handling emphasizes a dense, tactile realism typical of Northern European still-life painting of the 1630s. Brushwork is precise and layered, with carefully observed textures for fur, feathers, and fruit skins achieved through fine glazes and stippling.
The composition balances close-up detail with spatial recession, arranging grapes, plums, and game birds in a shallow, box-like setting that directs the viewer’s eye across the surface. The palette is rich yet restrained, dominated by deep greens, warm browns, and muted reds, with highlights that model form without sacrificing atmospheric unity.
No condition issues are reported in institutional records.
History & Provenance
The work is dated to 1630 based on internal documentation and catalogue records.
It entered the collection of Oscar Winterbottom at Horton Hall, Northamptonshire, by descent within his family after his birth in 1891. The estate passed to George Winterbottom following a sale around 1899 and was demolished in 1936. The painting was later consigned for sale at Christie’s, London, on 8 July 2005 (lot 50).
It passed through Johnny van Haeften Ltd. and Colnaghi, London, before being acquired by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., on 15 February 2006.
The painting is held by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., accessioned as 2006.1.1.
It was previously in the collection of Oscar Winterbottom at Horton Hall, Northamptonshire, and descended within his family until sold at Christie’s, London, on 8 July 2005 (lot 50). It later passed through Johnny van Haeften Ltd. and Colnaghi, London, before acquisition by the National Gallery of Art on 15 February 2006.
Overview
Frans Snyders created Still Life with Grapes and Game around 1630, an oil painting on panel. This work exemplifies the Flemish Baroque movement, known for its opulent and dynamic compositions. As a still life, it showcases Snyders's expertise in depicting natural forms and textures, a genre in which he specialized. The painting captures a moment of abundance, characteristic of the era's artistic trends.
Subject & Meaning
The composition centers on a lavish display of nature's bounty arranged on a table. A basket overflows with grapes, depicted in varied hues of green, red, and purple, some clusters cascading over the table's edge. Alongside the fruit, several dead birds and a pheasant are presented, rendered with precise anatomical detail.
This arrangement suggests themes of harvest and the hunt, common motifs in 17th-century still life painting, often alluding to the transience of life.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Frans Snyders or Frans Snijders was a Flemish painter of animals, hunting scenes, market scenes, and still lifes.
Still life of fruit in a basket together with game, a bowl of fraises-de-bois, artichokes, asparagus and a squirrel upon a table draped with a red cloth
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Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a Market
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Still Life with Huntsman
Still Life with a Dead Stag
