Decamps was born into a bourgeois family and as a young boy sent by his father to the Picardian countryside to experience the realities of peasant life. These formative years not only nurtured his interest for nature but also directed him toward an artistic career. He returned to Paris in 1816 and studied briefly with Étienne Bouhot (1780-1862), who painted architectural scenes. In 1818, Decamps joined the studio of Alexandre-Denis Abel de Pujol (1785-1861), and copied (Dutch) Old Master paintings in the Louvre. Unimpressed with his academic education, Decamps had become an independent artist by 1820. He earned an income and a reputation with satirical lithographs and anecdotal scenes that were popular with collectors. Decamps's Salon debut occurred in 1827, and the following year he became one of the first distinguished European artists to travel to Asia Minor and North Africa. He returned to Paris with countless drawings and sketches that would serve him for the rest of his career and quickly became one of the leading orientalist painters. He also renewed his earlier interest in lithography and published an album of his hunting scenes. In 1835, he made a journey to Italy, where he studied the works of Raphael (1485-1520) and Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). Upon his return, he began painting biblical scenes, set against convincing depictions of Near Eastern landscapes, based on his earlier travels. He went to the forest of Fontainebleau in 1843-44 and befriended Dupré (q.v.). Decamps would revisit Fontainebleau ten years later and purchased a house there in 1857. He was one of the most successful and famous artists of this time. His patrons included the Marquis Mason, the Barons de Rothschild, and the Duc d'Orléans. He was elected to the Salon Jury in 1851 and kept this position until 1853. In 1855, at the Paris Exposition Universelle, his works were featured in a retrospective exhibition, along with those of Delacroix (q.v.) and Ingres (q.v.). Although he was a critically acclaimed and financially successful artist during his lifetime, Decamps's reputation quickly waned after his death in 1860.

This painting forms a pair with the Still Life with Pipe and Matches, shown nearby. Along with several other paintings, they decorated the dining room of the artist's home, each painting representing a different stage of a meal. In this composition the artist focused his attention on rendering textures, which are as varied as the objects themselves: the skin of the smoked herrings, whose highlights echo the silver of the goblet and the cover of the pitcher; the spongy surface of the bread; the velvety crust of the cheese; and finally the soft wood surface (pine?) that supports this still life.

The Latin inscription translates: "How virtuous and how great to live with simple things."