6041 - Beck, Jacob Samuel

Beck, Jacob Samuel Kitchen still life with leg of lamb, herrings, garlic, cabbage and a ceramic jug with a plate of butter. Oil on canvas. 56 x 73 cm. The Thuringian Jacob Samuel Beck was the most important Erfurt painter of his time. All genres are represented in the astonishingly diverse oeuvre of this biographically elusive artist: in addition to his work as a sought-after portraitist and history and landscape painter, his still lifes undoubtedly stand out in a very special way. What all his still lifes have in common is their staging in a chiaroscuro style, which Beck based on Dutch models of the 17th century. The background always remains in the dark, effectively accentuating the draped objects. Our painting is a variant of a privately owned still life; the arrangement is largely identical, only the onions have been exchanged for small garlic bulbs in our version (cf. exhib. Cat. Jacob Samuel Beck (1715-1778). Zum 300. Geburtstag des Erfurter Malers, ed. by Thomas von Taschitzki, Kai Uwe Schierz, Erfurt 2016, p. 244, no. 47, with illus. p. 199). - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the state of preservation is only stated in the catalog in exceptional cases. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalogue.