LONDON.- The National Gallery has acquired one of the greatest examples of 17th-century Dutch still-life paintings – a rare picture, one of only 14 known to exist, by a pioneering painter of richly laid tables with a variety of objects and foodstuffs rendered in exquisite detail.

A Banquet Still Life (1622) by Delft-born Floris van Dijck (about 1575 ‒ before 1651) is the largest work by the artist to have survived and, within his small oeuvre, ranks as among his most impressive.

A superb example marking the beginning of the Dutch tradition of so-called banquet still life’s, van Dijck’s compositions are always seen as if from an elevated viewpoint.

'A Banquet Still Life' has been bought for £2.9 million from a private collection, thanks to a generous legacy from Mrs Martha Doris Bailey and Mr Richard Hillman Bailey, and with the support of the National Gallery Trust. It was acquired as a private treaty sale brokered by Sotheby’s.

The picture – which is on display in Room 23 – is one of the new Bicentenary acquisitions announced to coincide with the opening of CC Land: The Wonder of Art, the biggest ever rehang of the National Gallery’s collection, and the opening of the newly transformed Sainsbury Wing on 10 May 2025.

This breakfast still life shows a richly laid table with fruit, olives, sweets and butter shavings in various blue-and- white Wan-Li Chinese export porcelain bowls, a stack of cheese and apples on pewter plates, a knife, a leather gourd, a stoneware Schnabelkanne (a beak-spouted ewer), a silver-gilt nautilus cup, a roemer, stemmed glass flutes, a pewter plate with spices and a slice of melon, and various scattered fruits, breads and nuts, all arranged upon a white lace and damask cloth laid over a red damask cloth covering a table.

Not much is known about van Dijck’s life other than that he was born in Delft, reportedly travelled and painted in Italy and was in Rome around 1600. From at least 1603 he worked in Haarlem. His second marriage in October 1627 to the wealthy Cornelia Jansdr Vlasmans meant that from then on he probably did not have to rely on his work as a painter to provide him with an income. This may help to explain why his oeuvre is so small.

Sir Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, says: ‘We are delighted to acquire for our Bicentenary this rare and ambitious still life painting by one of the most important Dutch artists of this genre - who is only known to have painted 14 pictures. I am very grateful to the legacies of Mrs Martha Doris Bailey and Mr Richard Hillman Bailey, with the support of the National Gallery Trust, and to Sotheby’s, for making this important addition to the Gallery’s collection possible.’

'A Banquet Still Life' is one of a group of new acquisitions announced as part of the opening of the new 'CC Land: The Wonder of Art'. The others are Ballet Dancers by Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas (1888) and A View of the Sky from a Prison Window by Carl Gustav Carus (1823).

These follow recent announcements of other acquisitions for the Gallery’s Bicentenary - King David by Guercino, the early 16th-century Netherlandish or French altarpiece The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret and the new commission for the Gallery’s Contextual Collection Mud Sun by Sir Richard Long.

These works are all on now on display together with those NG200 acquisitions announced last year - Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s After the Audience, Poussin’s Eucharist and Eva Gonzales’s The Full-length Mirror.

'A Banquet Still Life', 1622

It was in Haarlem that many of the genres for which Dutch painting is best known were first developed. Floris van Dijck was among the city’s most important pioneers in the field of still-life painting. Celebrated for their precise realism, his paintings invariably depict banquet tables laden with bread, cheese, fruits, and luxurious glassware. On the one hand these reveal pride in how the fledgling Dutch Republic prospered, but on the other they serve as a reminder that material goods are ultimately less important than spiritual concerns, a message that would remain central to much of 17th-century Dutch still-life painting.

Van Dijck’s marriage in 1627 to the wealthy Cornelia Jansdr Vlasmans enhanced his already considerable social standing. It provided further stability and may well explain why works by the artist are exceedingly rare, as there was little financial incentive for him to be productive. Only 14 of his paintings have survived. Even so, his banquet still lifes defined the genre and his works were the fountain from which a great tradition of opulent still-life painting sprang: the works of artists such as Pieter Claesz in Haarlem, Willem Kalf in Rotterdam and Jan Davidsz de Heem in Utrecht and Antwerp – to name but a few – are unthinkable without the pioneering example set by van Dijck.

The breakfast still life shows a richly laid table with fruit, olives, sweets and butter shavings in various blue-and-white Wan-Li Chinese export porcelain bowls, a stack of cheese and apples on pewter plates, a knife, a leather gourd, a stoneware Schnabelkanne, a silver-gilt nautilus cup, a roemer, stemmed glass flutes, a pewter plate with spices and a slice of melon, and various scattered fruits, breads and nuts, all arranged upon a white lace and damask cloth laid over a red damask cloth covering a table.

It is largest work by van Dijck to have survived and, within his small oeuvre, ranks as among his most impressive. Moreover, it is a superb example of the beginnings of the great Dutch tradition of painting so-called banquet still lifes. Such early examples are characterised by a predilection for delicacies laid out on a table, piled high and seen as if from a bird’s-eye view, allowing all the goods on display to be clearly visible, in much the same way as early flower still lifes of the same period tend to show every flower individually.

Floris van Dijck (about 1575 - before 1651)

Not much is known about Floris van Dijck’s life other than that he was born in Delft, reportedly travelled and painted in Italy and was in Rome around 1600, working as an assistant to Giuseppe Cesari, called Cavaliere d’Arpino. From at least 1603 he worked in Haarlem. His second marriage in October 1627 to the wealthy Cornelia Jansdr Vlasmans meant that from then on he probably did not have to rely on his work as a painter to provide him with an income. This may help to explain why his oeuvre is exceedingly small. Only 14 works by him are known. He was nevertheless highly influential as a pioneer in Haarlem of the ‘display piece’ still life showing a richly laden table with, among other things, pieces of fruit, bread and nuts placed around a stack of cheeses on a pewter plate. His compositions are always seen from an elevated viewpoint, not unlike early 17th-century landscapes, which also adopt a bird’s eye perspective.