Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00010124Still Life with Herring, Bread, and Cheese
About the Artwork
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."
Inscriptions
Signed lower left: dc Rev 1858; inscribed: quoe [sic] virtus et quanta sit / vivere parvo [How virtuous, and how great to live with simple things]
Provenance
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.
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (French, 1803–1860)
- Date
- 1858
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Unframed: 63 x 38 cm (24 13/16 x 14 15/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Bequest of Noah L. Butkin
- Accession no.
- 1980.254.2
More by Alexandre Gabriel Decamps in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00010124
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