Still Life with Fish 1645 - 1681

Editor: This is "Still Life with Fish," painted with oil sometime between 1645 and 1681 by Isaac van Duynen. I’m immediately struck by the muted colors and the way the light catches the scales—it almost feels melancholic, a little… still. What do you make of it? Curator: Melancholic is a wonderful word for it! The Dutch Golden Age was obsessed with these sorts of genre paintings, these windows into everyday life. But "still life" is such an odd phrase, isn't it? It implies death, preservation… Do you notice how the fish seem to be almost overflowing, tumbling out of that basket? It's abundance and decay intertwined. A painterly poem on time and tide. Editor: Definitely. I also noticed how many different types of seafood are represented. Why all the variety? Curator: Think of it like a brag! Not everyone had access to such a bounty, and displaying it like this showed the artist’s patron was well-off. This isn’t just any fish; it's cod, oysters… a cornucopia of the sea! Van Duynen wants to show off his masterful painting skills through rendering different textures – the hard shells of crabs, slippery scales of the fish, wet looking oysters… What about you? Did you notice anything specific? Editor: I hadn't thought of it that way, as a demonstration of wealth. It does make me look at the painting from a new angle. It's less about just… dead fish and more about a very particular, deliberate kind of showing off! Curator: Exactly! That's the beauty of art, isn't it? A surface simplicity hiding a churning undercurrent of meaning. We all have these perspectives which is great. The light hits everyone in various unique ways!