A crab, a bread roll, a roemer, a pipe and a taper on a partially draped table

Jan Olis was first recognized as a still-life painter by Ingvar Bergström in 1951. Previously, the artist was thought to have worked exclusively as a painter of genre scenes and portraits (I. Bergström, 'Jan Olis as a still-life painter,' Oud Holland, LXVI, 1951, pp. 55-58). Little is known of Olis' artistic training, but he likely travelled to Rome in the 1630s, as a painting of Diana and Actaeon is said to be inscribed ‘Jan Olis Roma pinsit Ao. 1631’ (formerly in the Lüdinghausen-Wolff collection, Mitau, present location unknown). He is documented throughout the Netherlands, settling for short periods of time in Dordrecht, The Hague - where he is recorded as a wine merchant as well as a painter - and Rotterdam. Olis finally made a permanent home in Heusden around 1654, where he continued his career as a painter while serving as an alderman, mayor, and a tax collector.

Here Olis depicts a large North Sea crab on a pewter plate, with a bread roll and other elements typical of still lifes, alongside a cone of tobacco and a smoker’s requisites, including a pipe, tobacco box, and a lighter, still glowing from it’s last use. While considered medicinal in some cases, smoking for pleasure in the 17th century was generally disapproved of and often associated with vanity and excess. Popular expressions like ‘zijn laatste pijp roken’ (to smoke one's last pipe) and ‘hij heeft zijn pijp uitgeklopt’ (he has knocked out his pipe) associated the vice with death. Like so many elements in still-life painting, the smoking accessories here may also serve to remind the viewer of the transience of life.