# Still-Life with Mouse and Candle [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [AELST, Willem van]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on copper, 19 x 25 cm ## Commentary Although Van Aelst is most admired for elegant still-lifes with fine glassware, silver vessels, fruit and flowers, this representation of humbler motifs must be considered one of his finest early work. The subject here is a 'vanitas', with a recently extinguished candle set in a holder on a stone ledge, and a mouse nibbling at walnut crumbs. Although mice occur in 17th-century still-lifes \(e.g. in paintings by Abraham van Beyeren, Georg Flegel, Jacob Vosmaer\), the specific combination of a mouse and an expired candle is unique. ## Related artworks - [Breakfast Piece]() - [Flower Still-Life]() - [Fruit Still-Life]() - [Hunting Still-Life \(detail\)]() - [Hunting Still-Life]() - [Still-Life of Dead Birds and Hunting Weapons]() - [Still-Life of Fruit]() - [Still-Life]() - [Still-Life]() - [Still-Life]() - [Still-Life with a Basket of Fruit on a Marble Ledge]() - [Still-Life with Armour]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()