Still Life with an Earthenware Jug, a Tortoise Shell Tobacco Box, a ‘Gouda’ Pipe, a Glass of Beer and Tobacco Smoking Implements

This beautiful intimate composition shows a white earthenware jug with a metal lid in the form of a cup and decorated with the coat of arms of Amsterdam, a long clay pipe from Gouda, a tortoise shell tobacco box, a glass of beer and a burning wick. Against a deep green background, these objects, lit from the left, are carefully composed, clustered together towards the left of a rustic wooden table. The artist contrasts translucent with solid materials, with the beautifully rendered translucent tortoise shell box, while the end of the wick can be glimpsed through the translucent medium of the beer. The cast shadows, such as those of the wick, draped over the pipe and hanging off the edge of the table, create a strong sense of three-dimensional objects in space.

Van de Velde began his career under the influence of such Haarlem masters as Pieter Claesz (1597-1661), but soon developed his own style. He worked in Amsterdam from 1641 until the end of his life. The present painting is an exquisite example of the approximately only 40 paintings Van de Velde executed during his short career. Together with Jan Treck (c. 1606-1652) he introduced the present type of still life, the so-called ‘toebackje’, tobacco still life, with smokers’ paraphernalia, to Amsterdam. Although herbalists attributed healing effects to tobacco, as a stimulant it was identified with drunkenness and regarded as a sin. Bergström classifies this theme as a Vanitas still life where painter and viewer were supposed to reflect on the passage of all worldly things.

A comparable painting, executed only eight years before in 1650, Still Life with a Stoneware Jug and Pipe, was acquired in 2019 for the collection of The National Gallery of Art in Washington. Another Still Life with Smokers’ Paraphernalia is in the collection of The Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.