Still Life with Herring, Bread, and Cheese

Still Life with Herring, Bread, and Cheese — Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps. 1858.

Medium: oil on canvas. Dimensions: Unframed: 63 x 38 cm (24 13/16 x 14 15/16 in.).

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

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."

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.