This painting was based on a still- life by the Flemish artist Osias Beert the Elder ( about1580-1624) displayed at the Ashmolean in Oxford.

Still- life paintings originated in the 1500s when artists began to make independant compositions from inanimate objects such as fruit and flowers which had previously featured in religious and historical compositions. It appeared first in Italy but it is a form of art which is associated above all with 17 th century Dutch and Flemish artists. Many of these artists specialised in one branch of still- lfe painting -flowers, fruit, fish, smoking utensils etc. Some had a symbolic meaning referencing the transience of life ( vanitas).