Catalogue entry
Willem KALF, 1619‐1693
6444 Still Life with the Drinking‐horn of the St Sebastian Archers' Guild, Lobster and
Glasses
, 1991
Extracted from:
Neil MacLaren; revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, The Dutch School 1600–1900 (London: National Gallery Publications Limited, 1991).
Willem Kalf, Still Life with the Drinking‐horn of the St Sebastian Archers’ Guild, Lobster and Glasses (No. 6444) © The National Gallery, London
Signed, lower left: W. Kalf.
Kalf (No. 6444) © The National Gallery, London
Oil on canvas, 86.4 × 102.2 cm (34 × 40¼).
Discussion
The drinking‐horn of the St Sebastian Archers’ Guild which is the centrepiece of this composition is today in the Amsterdam Historisch Museum (Fig. 47).1 It is dated 1565.2 It is a buffalo‐horn in a silver mount. The foot is a silver tree‐trunk to which St Sebastian is bound; a soldier stands on either side of him. On the silver band to which the foot is attached, there is a lion holding a shield bearing the arms of the city of Amsterdam. In this painting and in the upright variant of it (see below)3 Kalf's representation of the horn varies in detail from the original, noticeably in the position of the two soldiers on either side of the saint. The drinking‐horn also appears (more faithfully represented) in Bartholomeus van der Helst’s Four Regents of the St Sebastian Archers’ Guild of 1653 in the Rijksmuseum4 and in two figure scenes by Metsu.5
Willem Kalf, Drinking Horn of the St Sebastian Archers’ Guild. Amsterdam, Historisch Museum
, inv. no. KA 13966
. (See Kalf No. 6444.)
Photo: Amsterdam, Historisch Museum
Photo: Amsterdam Museum
In the variant which is in an upright format6 the composition is extended at the bottom. The chair on the left (only three tacks can be made out with difficulty in No. 6444) can be seen clearly and more of the cherub supporting the table (in the upright version Kalf has turned him to face the viewer directly) and the table carpet can be seen. Similar arrangements of glasses, silver, lobster and fruit can be found in other still lifes by Kalf.7
[page 1.214]Grisebach dates No. 6444 (and the upright version) to the early 1650s,8 with which the present writer concurs. It is strikingly similar in technique (and in particular details) to, for example, the Still Life with Porcelain Jug, Roemer and Fruit of 1653 in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.9
VERSIONS AND COPIES: An autograph version,10 in an upright format, is discussed above. It was in the collection of Dr K. Lilienfeld in New York in about 1935. Its present whereabouts is unknown. A copy said to be by Barent van der Meer was in the C. Th. F. Thurkow collection, The Hague, in 1941.11 A second copy, attributed to Juriaan van Streeck but probably significantly later in date, was in the collection of Mrs Carla Rava in Reggio Emilia in 1978.12
PROVENANCE: Either No. 6444 or the autograph version discussed above (under versions and copies) was presumably the painting recorded in the inventory of the Amsterdam wine dealer Arnout Stevens (28 January 1706): ‘de horen met meerder stil leven van Willem Kalf f. 100.’13 This painting was sold shortly afterwards at auction: Amsterdam, 31 March 1706, lot 1: ‘Een Kapitael stuk, van Willem Kalf (zynde een stil leven) daer in de Drinkhoren, ’t beste van hem bekent f. 155.’14 No. 6444 was in the collection of William Newall, London, around 1860. Bequeathed to the National Gallery by his descendant, Robert Sterling Newall, in 1978.
EXHIBITIONS: RA 1938, No. 191; London 1976, No. 64; Delft, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof; Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum; Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, 1988/9, ‘A Prosperous Past: The Sumptuous Still Life in the Netherlands 1600–1700’ , cat. no. 54.
REFERENCES:
General: Grisebach, op. cit. , cat. no. 77.
In text:
1. It is catalogued in the Rijksmuseum silver catalogue, 1952, no. 40. (Back to text.)
2. J. W. Fredericks, Dutch Silver, 1961, vol. 4, no. 2. (Back to text.)
3. Grisebach, op. cit. , cat. no. 78. Canvas, 128 × 106 cm. (Back to text.)
4. 1976, cat.C3. The painting bears the date 1657 over 1653. There is a smaller version of the painting dated 1653 in the Louvre (cat. 1979, no. 1332). Although known as a guild, the St Sebastian archers’ guild was in fact part of the city’s civic guard. (Back to text.)
5. The Oyster Eaters, Hermitage, Leningrad ( HdG 174); Girl playing a Lute, Gemäldegalerie, Cassel ( HdG 146). (Back to text.)
6. See note 3. (Back to text.)
7. Grisebach, op. cit. , cat. nos. 73, 74, 75, 76. (Back to text.)
8. Grisebach, op. cit. , p. 155. He also notes the influence of still lifes of this type by Kalf on a still life of 1656 by Simon Luttichuys. (Back to text.)
9. Grisebach, op. cit. , cat. no. 72. Alte Pinakothek 1983 cat., p. 268. Inv. no. 10763. (Back to text.)
10. See note 3. (Back to text.)
11. Canvas, 80 × 98 cm. Note in RKD quoted by Grisebach, op. cit. , cat. no. 77a. (Back to text.)
12. Photograph in the National Gallery archives. (Back to text.)
13. Gemeentearchief Amsterdam, N.A.A., no. 4642, folios 493‐94. Quoted by Grisebach, op. cit. , cat. no. 77. (Back to text.)
14. Hoet, 1, pp. 85–87. (Back to text.)
Abbreviations
3 Other Abbreviations
- RA
- Royal Academy of Arts, London; Royal Academician
- RKD
- The Netherlands Institute for Art History (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie), The Hague. Artists database, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague (online), 2000– (https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists)
List of archive references cited
- The Hague, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie: note
List of references cited
- Davies 1959
- Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The British School, revised edn, London 1959
- Davies and Gould 1970
- Davies, Martin, revised by Cecil Gould, National Gallery Catalogues: French School Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post‐Impressionists, etc., London 1970
- Fredericks 1961
- Fredericks, J.W., Dutch Silver, 1961
- Grisebach 1974
- Grisebach, L., Willem Kalf, Berlin 1974
- Hoet 1752/1770
- Hoet, G., Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen met derzelver pryzen…, 3 vols, The Hague 1752 and 1770
- Hofstede de Groot 1907–28
- Hofstede de Groot, C., Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols (vols 9 and 10 are in German), London, Stuttgart and Paris 1907–28
- Rijksmuseum 1952
- Rijksmuseum, Catalogus van Goud en Zilverwerken, 1952
List of exhibitions cited
- Delft, Cambridge and Fort Worth 1988/9
- Delft, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof; Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum; Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, A Prosperous Past: The Sumptuous Still Life in the Netherlands 1600–1700, 1988/9
- London 1938‐9
- London, Royal Academy of Arts, Seventeenth Century Art in Europe, 1938‐9
- London 1976
- London, National Gallery, Art in Seventeenth–Century Holland, 1976
- Munich 1983
- Munich, Alte Pinakothek, 1983
Explanatory Notes on the Catalogue
SEQUENCE The paintings are arranged alphabetically according to the name of the artist or school.
ATTRIBUTION A picture catalogued under the name of the artist is considered to be by him. ‘Attributed to’ qualifies the attribution. ‘Ascribed to’ indicates a greater degree of doubt. ‘Workshop of’ or ‘Follower of’ are self‐explanatory. ‘Style of’ indicates that the painting is an imitation or copy painted after the artist’s lifetime. A list of attributions which have been changed from the first edition of this catalogue (published in 1960) is given on pages 510–13.
INVENTORY NUMBER The National Gallery inventory number is to be found to the left of the picture title.
MEASUREMENTS These are given in centimetres, followed by inches in brackets. Height precedes width.
RIGHT and LEFT These indicate the viewer’s right and left, unless the context clearly implies the contrary.
BIOGRAPHIES MacLaren’s biographical notes on painters have been expanded and brought up to date when there is no accessible and reliable modern literature. Where such literature exists, these notes have been kept to a minimum.
REFERENCES The bibliographical references, though selective, include publications which appeared before mid‐1989. References to books and articles which appeared subsequently and which the author considered to be of importance are referred to within square brackets but could not be taken into account in the catalogue entries themselves.
LISTS AND INDEXES At the back of this volume are lists of paintings acquired since the last edition of this catalogue and changed attributions. There are also indexes to religious subjects, profane subjects, topography, previous owners, years of acquisition and inventory number.
ILLUSTRATIONS The plates of the paintings included in the catalogue are in the second volume, together with all the signatures which could be reproduced. The comparative plates are included in Volume 1.
[page 1.xiv]VAN ‘van’ has been used in lower case throughout in accordance with The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. The ‘van’ has been omitted for certain artists as is customary, e.g. ‘Jacob van Ruisdael’, but ‘Ruisdael’.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES ‘ op. cit. ’ may refer back to books and articles referred to under the artist’s biography (rather than in the particular catalogue entry).
CHRISTIE’S AND SOTHEBY’S Unless another location is mentioned, the sales referred to took place in London.
CLEANING The cleaning of paintings which took place before 1945 is not referred to, unless the circumstances were exceptional.
CONDITION All the paintings have been examined during the preparation of this catalogue. In many cases the condition is described, sometimes in considerable detail. If the condition is not described, the painting can be presumed to be in good condition.
PROVENANCE AND EXHIBITIONS There are separate headings for provenance and exhibitions in individual catalogue
entries. In certain cases, when nineteenth‐century paintings were included in dealers’
exhibitions for example, these two sections have been conflated
,
.
VAN GOGH The National Gallery’s four paintings by Van Gogh (Inv. nos. 3861, 3862, 3863 and 4169) are not catalogued in this volume but in The French School by Cecil Gould.
CORNELIUS JOHNSON The one painting (Inv. no. 6280) in the National Gallery by Johnson, who was born in London of Dutch parents but moved to the Netherlands after the outbreak of the Civil War, is not included in this catalogue but in The British School by Martin Davies.
Explanatory note
This volume contains the illustrations for the catalogue of the Dutch School published in Volume 1.
The pictures and their attributions are discussed in detail in the catalogue; in this volume only the title, the artist (or attribution) and the inventory number are given.
At the end of the volume are plates of all the signatures that could be reproduced. In the interest of clarity some of these have been enlarged.
About this version
Version 2, generated from files NM_CB_1991__16.xml dated 17/02/2025 and database__16.xml dated 16/02/2025 using stylesheet 16_teiToHtml_externalDb.xsl dated 03/01/2025. Entries for NG212, NG221, NG830, NG871, NG990, NG1674, NG1675, NG2531, NG4503, NG6350, NG6442, NG6444 and NG64835 proofread following mark-up and corrected.
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- https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DEF-000B-0000-0000
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- Chicago style
- MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown. “6444 Still Life with the Drinking‐horn of the St Sebastian Archers' Guild, Lobster and Glasses”. 1991, online version 2, February 17, 2025. https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DEF-000B-0000-0000.
- Harvard style
- MacLaren, Neil and Brown, Christopher (1991) 6444 Still Life with the Drinking‐horn of the St Sebastian Archers' Guild, Lobster and Glasses. Online version 2, London: National Gallery, 2025. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DEF-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 19 April 2025).
- MHRA style
- MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown, 6444 Still Life with the Drinking‐horn of the St Sebastian Archers' Guild, Lobster and Glasses (National Gallery, 1991; online version 2, 2025) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DEF-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 19 April 2025]