The Collection of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Paintings Bequeathed by Daisy Linda Ward

Book excerpt: In 1939, the Ashmolean Museum received a bequest of ninety-four still-life paintings by Dutch and Flemish artists, assembled over many years by Theodore and Daisy Linda Ward. The collection - known as the Daisy Linda Ward Bequest - is one of the most important of its kind. The original catalogue of the collection written by Professor J.G. van Gelder and published in 1950, has long been out of print. Knowledge of the subject also changed significantly since 1950. The present catalogue written by one of the leading present-day scholars of still-life paintings is much more than a revised version of van Gelder's publication. It includes an essay on the background to the collection and a discussion of the taste for and the interpretation of Netherlandish still-life painting. It also includes an extensive discussion of each of the works dealing with questions of style and content and ranging widely over other issues affecting the history of the subject. This book will serve not only as a catalogue of the collection but also as an important and up-to-date work of reference.