# Trompe l'oeil with Studio Wall and Vanitas Still Life

- By: Cornelius Norbertus Gijsbrechts (Flemish, 1625–1675)
- Date: 1668
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: height 152 cm, width 118 cm, height 166.8 cm, width 134 cm
- Culture: Flemish
- Museum: [SMK – National Gallery of Denmark](https://open.smk.dk/artwork/image/KMSst537)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark: SMK waives its rights in this photograph](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://iip-thumb.smk.dk/iiif/jp2/6682x6271_KMSKMSst537.tif.reconstructed.tif.jp2/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

A depiction of a painting within an artist’s studio. A still life is positioned on a shelf, referencing objects of transience (a skull, an hourglass, and a candle, etc.). The completed artwork is still mounted on a provisional stretcher. The upper right-hand corner of the canvas has become detached, thereby exposing the woven ground of the canvas. A collection of brushes, a paint box and a maulstick (a tool used to stabilise the hand while painting) are positioned below the painting. From a palette, paint is running down and dripping. It looks as if the painter has just left his studio. By featuring his own working tools in such a prominent manner, Cornelius Gijsbrechts places considerable emphasis on the production and creative process inherent to the essence of painting depicted here. Furthermore, he asserts his role in the production of these works by not only signing the still life, but also immortalising himself by prominently placing his name on the note attached to the stretcher frame (50 Favorites in the SMK Collection).