Still life with bread, a lemon, cups and a roemer on a pewter

Bisschop's 1904 still life with bread, a lemon, cups, and a roemer on pewter revisits the classic vocabulary of Dutch seventeenth-century breakfast pieces (ontbijtjes), in which modest food and drink objects are arranged on a table with studied informality. The roemer — a traditional Dutch glass with a knobbed stem — was a stock element of Old Master still life from the seventeenth century, and Bisschop's revival of it signals his historical orientation. The combination of metal, glass, ceramic, and food items provided a range of surface textures that seventeenth-century Dutch painters exploited with virtuosity, and Bisschop follows that tradition. The work is in the Fries Museum.

Bisschop organizes the objects on a pewter plate, using the reflective metal surface to unify the composition. The glass roemer is rendered with careful attention to transparency and refraction. Lighting is strong and directional, casting clear shadows. The palette follows Dutch breakfast piece conventions: warm ochres, cool glass, grey metal.