The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Still Life with Herring, Bread, and Cheese

Still Life with Herring, Bread, and Cheese

1858
(French, 1803–1860)
France, 19th century
oil on canvas
Unframed: 63 x 38 cm (24 13/16 x 14 15/16 in.)
Bequest of Noah L. Butkin 1980.254.2
Location: not on view

Description

This painting forms a pair with the Still Life with Pipe and Matches. Along with several other paintings, they decorated the dining room of the artist's home, each painting representing a different stage of a meal. In this composition the artist focused his attention on rendering textures, which are as varied as the objects themselves: the skin of the smoked herrings, whose highlights echo the silver of the goblet and the cover of the pitcher; the spongy surface of the bread; the velvety crust of the cheese; and finally the soft wood surface (pine?) that supports this still life. The Latin inscription translates: "How virtuous and how great to live with simple things."
  • Decamps sale, Paris, Drouot, 23-24 January 1865 (lots 26, 27), bought by M. Desprez for ff 300, ff 225. His collection sale, Versailles, 17 December 1972 (lot 218), to Georges Martin du Nord at Galerie B. G. Verte, Paris. Sold to Galerie Brame-Lorenceau, Paris. Bought by Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin, Cleveland. Bequeathed to the CMA in 1980.
  • Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 208-211, Vol. I, no. 76
    Herring, Sarah. The Nineteenth-Century French Paintings. London : National Gallery Company, 2019. Mentioned and reproduced: pp.132-133, fig. 22
    Delapierre, Emmanuelle. "Dans la Cuisine de Ribot: le Realisme de l'Objet." In Théodule Ribot, 1823-1891: Une Délicieuse Obscurité. Emmanuelle Delapierre, Luc Georget, Gabriel Weisberg, eds., 58-117. Paris: LienArt, 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 94, fig. 28
  • CMA. Chardin and the Still-Life Tradition in France (1979), 61, 85, 90, figs. 18, 19.
  • {{cite web|title=Still Life with Herring, Bread, and Cheese|url=false|author=Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps|year=1858|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1980.254.2