Description
Portrait with Vegetables (The Greengrocer) is a painting by Giuseppe Arcimboldo that can be read two ways up. As it hangs here, it is a man’s head: an upturned dark-green bowl is his hat, a large onion his cheek, a thick white root his nose and two orange mushrooms his lips. Turned upside down, the same painting shows a bowl full of vegetables standing on a wooden ledge. We make it as a hand-painted reproduction in oil on canvas, in fifteen sizes or a size of your own, and you receive a photograph of the finished painting for approval before dispatch.
| Title: | Portrait with Vegetables (The Greengrocer) |
| Painter: | Giuseppe Arcimboldo |
| Original technique: | not confirmed – without an institution’s record we make no claim about the original’s technique |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on canvas, fifteen sizes from 24 x 35 to 110 x 160 cm, custom size on request |
We could not verify a published record of this painting at any institution, so we have no measured dimensions and no inventory number to rely on. That is why you will not find a year of execution, a collection name or an accession number on this page. We say what can be checked against an institution or on the painting itself, and nothing else.
Portrait with Vegetables (The Greengrocer) – Giuseppe Arcimboldo
What does the painting show?
Hung the way we show it, a man’s head seen from the front, filling almost the whole painting. On his head sits a large, upturned dark green bowl, its rim low over the brow like the brim of a hat, and along the top edge of the painting runs a strip of brown wood. Below the bowl the face is built entirely from vegetables, nuts and leaves, and a thick beard of roots and leaves covers the lower half. Turn the painting upside down and the head disappears: the bowl now stands the right way up on a wooden ledge, and the vegetables are simply piled in it. The painting names no sitter, and we do not give him a name; the title names only his trade.
What is the face made of?
The biggest shape in the face is a large, pale-brown onion with its root hairs still on, which makes one cheek. The nose is a thick white root lying slantwise, its cut end facing us. On either side of its upper end, the eyes are two nuts in their husks, one of them split open to show the pale kernels inside. A small white bulb with a tuft of roots sits at the far left like an ear, and a paler, pinkish root forms the other cheek. The lips are two orange mushroom caps, one on top of the other, with the gills showing along their edge. Below them the beard is a fan of white roots with long, deeply toothed green leaves, and beside it sits a round, spiny chestnut burr. On the left, curly green leaves of lettuce frame the face, and at the right edge long pale leaves hang down like hair. From a distance the separate vegetables disappear, and only a man’s face remains. The whole head is painted with the care of a still life: every layer of onion skin and every root hair is there.
Why is this painting remarkable?
Because it works in both directions. Many of Arcimboldo’s heads are made of things, but here the painting is also a complete still life when you turn it round: a bowl on a ledge, filled with onion, roots, nuts, mushrooms and leaves. The same brushstrokes make both images, and nothing had to be added or left out for either of them. The bowl is the key: as a hat it gives the face its shape, and as a bowl it holds the still life together. How the painter built his heads is the subject of our article about Arcimboldo.
What does the painting mean?
The title names a trade, and the painting takes it literally: a man who sells vegetables is made of what he sells. One reading sees a joke about work, in which a person becomes his wares. Another reads it as a game of looking, in which the viewer has to decide what he sees, a man or a bowl of vegetables, and then turn the painting to find the other answer. Because we could not verify any institution’s record of this work, we keep to what the painting shows and do not add a story it does not tell.
The motif among the painter’s works
Heads built from produce are Arcimboldo’s best-known motif. The closest relatives are the seasons: Summer, a head of fruit and vegetables whose record is published by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and Autumn, with grapes for hair and a barrel for a body. The imperial portrait Rudolf II (Holy Roman Emperor) as Vertumnus is likewise made of fruit, vegetables and flowers, and is held by Skokloster Castle in Sweden. None of these three turns upside down; this painting does. All of our Arcimboldo paintings are gathered on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo page.
How is our hand-painted version made?
Every copy is hand-painted in oil on canvas; none is printed. The Greengrocer is demanding because it has to work both ways up: every vegetable must be painted as carefully as in a still life, and at the same time the shapes must stay where the face needs them. Our painter first lays in the dark background, the brown ledge and the dark green bowl with its highlights, then the large forms, the onion, the roots and the mushrooms, and only then the fine work: the skin of the onion, the root hairs, the spines of the chestnut burr and the toothed leaves of the beard. The brushstrokes stay visible close up, and no two copies are ever quite the same.
Which size for which wall?
For most living rooms 60 x 90 cm is right. The small sizes, 24 x 35 cm and 30 x 45 cm, belong on a shelf, in a kitchen or above a desk, where the painting is seen close up and can easily be turned. The 40 x 60 cm and 50 x 70 cm sizes suit a wall over a chest of drawers or a dining table, and 60 x 90 cm and 70 x 100 cm a wall over a sofa. At 80 x 120 cm the painting needs a free wall with room to step back. The eight largest sizes, from 98 x 152 cm to 110 x 160 cm, differ from one another by at most 12 cm in width and 15 cm in height: among them you pick the one that best fits the exact space on your wall. Every size is the same oil painting reproduction, painted by hand; only the scale changes. We give no size for the original, because we could not verify one.
Custom size, stretcher bar and frame
If none of the fifteen sizes fits, we paint in the size you ask for; send width and height through the paintings made to order page and we will prepare a quote. The painting is delivered stretched on a wooden stretcher bar and ready to hang, or rolled in a tube. You choose the frame on this page: the 3D frame selector offers 62 profiles, and the painting can also be ordered without a frame.
Delivery and guarantee
We paint to order, so it takes a few weeks, depending on size and on how busy the workshop is. We ship to sixteen countries in the European Union. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished painting; if something is not as you expected, we correct it before it goes out, at no extra cost.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original?
We could not verify any institution’s record of this painting, so we name no location. We state only what we can check.
Who is shown in the work?
No one by name: a greengrocer made of vegetables, as the title says. The painting gives no name for a sitter.
Can the painting really be turned upside down?
Yes. Turned round, the hat becomes a bowl standing on a ledge and the face becomes the vegetables piled in it. We paint it so that both readings work.
Is this a print?
No. Every copy is painted by hand, in oil on canvas.
Which size should I choose?
If you cannot decide, take 60 x 90 cm. For a wall seen close up a smaller size suits better; for a large free wall, 80 x 120 cm or larger.
Can I have a size that is not listed?
You can. We paint in any size; send width and height through the custom order page.
How is it delivered?
Stretched on the bar and ready to hang, or rolled in a tube.
What is the work about, in one sentence?
That a greengrocer is made of what he sells, and that the same vegetables are a face one way up and a bowl of produce the other.
Is the original for sale and what is it worth?
We do not know: we could not verify a record of who holds the original, so we give no value.
How high should I hang it?
Centre it about 145 cm from the floor, the eye height of an average adult; over furniture, with the lower edge 20 to 30 cm above it.
Is it suitable as a gift?
It is, and if you cannot pick a size you can give a gift voucher instead, leaving the choice to whoever receives it.
- Subject: a man’s head made of vegetables, with an upturned bowl for a hat, an onion for a cheek, a white root for a nose and two mushrooms for lips.
- Original: we could not verify an institution’s record of the original, so we give no year, size or location.
- Ours: a hand-painted copy in oil on canvas, fifteen sizes or your own, with a photograph for approval before dispatch. You choose the frame on this page, or order the painting without one.
- Worth knowing: turned upside down, the painting becomes a still life of a bowl of vegetables on a wooden ledge.
