Still Life with Gray Parrot

Artist Frans Snyders and Workshop Flemish, 1579–1657

Datecirca 1630s

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions36 5/8 x 53 1/16 in. (93 x 134.8 cm)
Frame: 48 x 64 1/2 in. (121.9 x 163.8 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.201

On View

On view

Label TextIn this still-life painting, we can see a variety of grapes, a collection of hunted birds, a Chinese Wan-Li porcelain bowl, a gilded Italian serving dish, and a woven basket. The realistic textures and colors of these objects showcase Snyders’s skill in depicting the world around him.

However, one might wonder how the African gray parrot picking at the grapes ended up in a Flemish painting. The parrot, not native to the Netherlands, is a product of active European colonization of Africa, and together with objects like the Chinese bowl attests to a fascination with exotic goods during this period.
[M. Frederick, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2022]ProvenanceCreated Antwerp, Flanders [present day Belgium], ca. 1630s. Probably Johannes Hubertus L. de Haas (1832–1908), Brussels, before 1897; [sale, Brussels, 1897]; to Cordon for Leopold II, King of Belgium (1835–1909), Schloss Laeken, Brussels [1]; [F. Kleinberger, Paris, May 1909]. Hermann Frenkel (d. 1932), Berlin, by 1914, possibly by 1911; to his wife Henriette Frenkel (née Pinkuss) (1859–1934), Berlin; [Frenkel posthumous sale, Paul Cassirer, Berlin, October 20, 1932, no. 34, as Fruit Still-Life, by Snyders, bought in]; to Hermann Frenkel's nephew Paul Baerwald (1871–1961), New York; [Kleinberger & Co., New York, 1949]; sold to NCMA, 1952.

[1] A letter dated December 6, 1897 confirms the painting's acquisition for the king at the Haas sale. The painting is also recorded in an inventory of the king's collection in 1906, as no. 95, "Snyders Fruits et oiseaux."Published ReferencesAusstellung von Werken alter Kunst aus dem Privatbesitz von Mitgliedern des Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Vereins (exhibition catalogue) (Berlin: Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein, Akademie der Künste, 1914), cat. no. 156.

Gemälde alter Meister aus Berliner Privatbesitz (exhibition catalogue) (Berlin: Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein, Akademie der Künste, 1925), cat. no. 358.

“Bilder und Kunstgegenstände aus dem Nachlass Geheimrat Hermann Frenkel” (auction catalogue) (Berlin: Paul Cassirer, October 20, 1932), lot 34, as Fruit Still-Life, by Snyders, illus. (b-w), pl. XII.

Edith Greindl, Les Peintres Flamands de Nature Morte au XVII Siècle (Brussels: Maitre en Histoire de l'Art et Archéologie, 1983), cat. no 247.

Hella Robels, Frans Snyders: Stillleben und Tiermaler 1579-1657 (München: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1989), 270, illus. 271, fig. no. 143.

W. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), no. 67, illus. (b-w).

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 139.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 115.

Guy C. Bauman and Walter Liedtke, selected by, Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America, Arnout Balis, Carl Van de Velde and Hans Vlieghe, eds. Flandria Extra Muros series (Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1992), 300-301, illus. (color) 301, fig. 97.

Dennis P. Weller, Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings [Systematic Catalogue of the Collection] (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2009), cat. no. 68, illus. (color) 330.
Exhibition HistoryKaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein, Akademie der Künste Berlin, “Ausstellung von Werken alter Kunst aus dem Privatbesitz von Mitgliedern des Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Vereins,” May 1914.

Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein, Akademie der Künste, Berlin “Gemälde alter Meister aus Berliner Privatbesitz,” July-August 1925.

Chattanooga, TN, George Thomas Hunter Gallery, “Christmas Exhibition,” December 1960- January 1961.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, Mary Duke Biddle Education Gallery, “Objects of Delight: Still Lifes from the Permanent Collection,” October 5, 1990-June 16, 1991.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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