Still Life with Pastries

This still life by Willem Linnig Junior belongs to a well-established Belgian and Dutch tradition of richly appointed still lifes celebrating the pleasures of the table. Linnig worked in Antwerp and was part of the city's artistic establishment in the later nineteenth century. Pastries as a still life subject have a long history in Netherlandish painting, from the elaborate breakfast pieces of the seventeenth century through simpler nineteenth-century treatments. This 1886 canvas at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp is characteristic of his careful, descriptive approach to still life.

Linnig renders the pastries with careful attention to their varied textures — the crisp pastry shells, dusted sugar surfaces, and creamy fillings. The arrangement is unpretentious, presenting the objects in clear, even light that allows each form to be precisely described.