Breakfast Still Life

Breakfast Still Life — Willem Claesz. Heda. 1647.

Medium: Oil on panel. Dimensions: 52 × 80.1 × 0.9 cm (20 1/2 × 31 9/16 × 3/8 in.); Framed: 69.9 × 97.8 × 7 cm (27 1/2 × 38 1/2 × 2 3/4 in.).

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

Willem Claesz. Heda’s still life may look like a snapshot of an abandoned meal, but the scene is carefully arranged, revealing the artist’s ability to create complex but harmonious compositions. Heda used the pewter chargers as horizontal elements in the foreground and the glass vessels and salt-cellar as verticals in the background, with the overturned ewer positioned diagonally to connect the two planes. Faint creases in the tablecloth, plates hanging precariously off the table’s edge, and the window reflected on the pitcher’s surface demonstrate the artist’s observant eye as well as his virtuosity in handling paint. Executed in a limited palette of silvers, grays, and browns, this work is an example of the “tonal trend” in Dutch 17th-century painting.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

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.