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Still Life with Vegetables, Partridge, and a Jug
About the Artwork
During the 19th century, a number of painters used common objects (rather than rare or refined objects) to create still lifes that some critics judged as unfit for the drawing room: studies of carrots, cabbages, asparagus, oysters, onions, eggs, and cooking utensils. Often these subjects were chosen for their mealtime associations. The food represented on the table in this painting—a partridge, onions, and cabbage—are the main ingredients for the well-known dish perdrix au chou (partridge with cabbage). Cals, however, was also interested in exploring underlying compositional design principles and studying the shapes of the objects he depicted. Cals lived and worked in and around Paris for most of his life, though in 1871 he moved to Normandy. In 1874 he participated in the first Impressionist exhibition and continued to do so until 1879. Although still lifes were an important part of his production, they were not his specialty. He preferred to work outdoors, in places chosen during his daily strolls. Art critic Edmond About, who was usually not very generous with compliments, characterized Cals as the most sincere and genuine artist he had ever known.
Inscriptions
Signed upper left: Cals 1858
Provenance
Galerie François Delestre, Paris. Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin, Cleveland. Bequeathed to the CMA in 1980.
Exhibition history
The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830 - 1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 12, 1980-January 18, 1981). Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Adolphe-Félix Cals (French, 1810–1880)
- Date
- 1858
- Medium
- oil on fabric
- Dimensions
- Unframed: 49.5 x 61 cm (19 1/2 x 24 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Bequest of Noah L. Butkin
- Accession no.
- 1980.242
More by Adolphe-Félix Cals in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009643
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