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Vanitas and Oysters on the Half Shell

Exploring 17th Century Dutch Art Featuring Oysters

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Julie Qiu
Apr 16, 2025
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I recently returned from a trip to Amsterdam, which predictably involved a few oysters.1 But the seed for this story was actually planted during my first visit, back in the fall of 2022, when I spent a quiet afternoon at the Rijksmuseum and noticed something curious: the Dutch once seemed a bit obsessed with oysters. Not on menus—but on canvas.

Jan Davids…
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