Still Life with Oysters

Artist Pieter Claesz. (Dutch, 1596/97-1660)

Place of OriginNetherlands

Date1642

DimensionsPainting: 14 × 20 1/8 in. (35.6 × 51.1 cm)
Frame: 20 1/2 × 26 1/2 × 2 1/4 in. (52.1 × 67.3 × 5.7 cm)

MediumOil on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1950.223

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 22

Label TextPieter Claesz. was one of the pioneers of a type of Dutch still life known as the “breakfast piece,” which features simple meals painted in tones of gray and brown. In contrast to the footed silver plate and elegant Venetian-style wine glasses of Jan Davidsz. de Heem’s Still Life with a Lobster in this gallery, Claesz. depicts “everyday” ware such as pewter plates and the squat Dutch wine glass called a roemer (see an example in the case nearby). Likewise, instead of an exotic lobster and overflowing basket of fruits, Claesz.’s meal consists of the humbler oyster and crumbly bread. Peppercorns in a rolled up sheet of printed paper and a lemon, believed to counteract the “cold sliminess” of oysters, accompany the meal. The “Claesz.” of Pieter Claesz.’s name is a Dutch patronymic (derived from the father’s name), short for Claeszoon, or “Son of Claes.”Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 37, pl. 124.

Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 159, Summer 1955, repr.

Wittmann, Otto, "The Golden Age in the Netherlands," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, December 1967, p. 474, repr. fig. 20.

Lowenthal, Anne Walter, "Response to Peter Hecht," Simiolus, vol. 16, no. 2/3, 1986, pp. 189-190, fig. 1.

Brunner-Bulst, Martina, Pieter Claesz.: der Hauptmeister des Haarlemer Stillebens im 17. Jahrhundert, Kritischer Oeuvrekatalog, Lingen, Luca, 2004, no. 109, p. 267, repr. p. 268.

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 106, repr. (col.) fig. 43.1.

Exhibition HistoryDelaware, Wilmington Society of the Fine Art, Dutch Exhibition Commemorating 300th Anniversary of the Landing of the Dutch, 1951.

Champaign, University of Illinois, College of Fine and Applied Arts, Great Traditions in Painting from Midwestern Collections, 1955, no. 6.

Milwaukee Art Institute and Cincinnati Art Museum, Still Life Painting Since 1470, 1956, no. 16, repr.