Artist:
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Abraham Mignon
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Title:
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Still Life with Fruits, Foliage and Insects
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Date:
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c. 1669
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Medium:
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Oil on canvas
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Dimensions:
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23 x 19 1/2 in. (58.42 x 49.53 cm) (canvas)
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Credit Line:
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Gift of Bruce B. Dayton
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Location:
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Gallery 311
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Still lifes often carried symbolic meanings for their original Dutch viewers. Here, the crowded display of fruit and insects testifies to the bounty of nature. The artist's virtuoso technique also reveals his desire to vie with the natural world and briefly halt time's passage by fixing these objects in paint. The sheer variety of natural organisms still fascinates. But the fruit has begun to rot, and the once-mighty oak tree shows signs of blight. The stone in the foreground has fallen from a once-perfect building, and the arch in the right background crumbles. Butterflies and caterpillars, traditional symbols of transience, also allude to the impermanence of earthly things.
Artist/Creator(s)
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Name:
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Mignon, Abraham
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Nationality:
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Dutch
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Life Dates:
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Dutch, 1640 - 1679
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Object Description
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Inscriptions:
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Signature LL (on brick): [A. Mignon f] Lined with old French newspaper on verso.
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Classification:
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Paintings
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Physical Description:
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Dutch still life with fruit, foliage, and insects.
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Creation Place:
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Europe, Netherlands, , ,
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Accession #:
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87.4
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Owner:
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The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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