Breakfast Still Life
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
52 × 80.1 × 0.9 cm (20 1/2 × 31 9/16 × 3/8 in.); Framed: 69.9 × 97.8 × 7 cm (27 1/2 × 38 1/2 × 2 3/4 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
257286
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This still life may look like a snapshot of an abandoned meal, but the scene is carefully arranged, revealing the artist’s ability to create complex but harmonious compositions with a limited palette of neutral colors. William Claesz. Heda balanced the horizontal pewter chargers in the foreground with the vertical glass vessels and salt-cellar in the background and positioned the overturned ewer diagonally to connect the two planes. Faint creases in the tablecloth, plates hanging precariously of...
About the Artist
Willem Claesz. Heda · 1594–1680
Comment on works: Still Life