# Still Life with Herring, Bread, and Cheese

- By: Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (French, 1803–1860)
- Date: 1858
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Unframed: 63 x 38 cm (24 13/16 x 14 15/16 in.)
- Culture: France, 19th century
- Credit line: Bequest of Noah L. Butkin
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1980.254.2)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/1980.254.2/1980.254.2_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This painting forms a pair with the Still Life with Pipe and Matches. Along with several other paintings, they decorated the dining room of the artist's home, each painting representing a different stage of a meal. In this composition the artist focused his attention on rendering textures, which are as varied as the objects themselves: the skin of the smoked herrings, whose highlights echo the silver of the goblet and the cover of the pitcher; the spongy surface of the bread; the velvety crust of the cheese; and finally the soft wood surface (pine?) that supports this still life. The Latin inscription translates: "How virtuous and how great to live with simple things."