Jan Davidsz. De Heem

Possibly Pieter Oets, Amsterdam;
His sale et al., Amsterdam, Van der Schley, 31 January 1791, lot 27, 1.10 guilders to Fouquet;¹
Anonymous sale, Berlin, Lepke, 1 April 1930, lot 52;
E. Gutzwiller, Paris;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 22 December 1937, lot 8 (as by Jan Davidsz. de Heem), 58 gns. to Asscher and Welker;
Anonymous sale, The Hague, Van Marle and Bignell, 19 March 1975, lot 86;
With J. Hoogsteder, The Hague, 1975;
Acquired by the present owner in 1987.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The oak panel is in a good, flat, secure condition and the paint layer is stable although the horizontal wood grain is raised. The background paint has been compromised and there has been skilful augmentation here, this can be seen to the left of the roemer and behind the grapes. The paint through the napkin has been strengthened as have the highlights to the orange and lemon, there are shrinkage cracks through the pewter dish and the ground layer is visible. Delicate glazes to the bread, oranges and grapes have been thinned. The paint through the leaves, roemer, green table cloth and the left part of the ledge are in a good untouched condition with paint texture and impasto well preserved. The colours are strong and saturate satisfactorily. A slight tonal improvement would be achieved with the removal of the varnish. Offered in a carved gilt wood frame, in good condition."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Although this panel was briefly associated with the work of Elias van den Broeck,²  it has more recently been rightfully restored by Fred G. Meijer to the oeuvre of Jan Davidsz. de Heem, to whom it had been attributed since the late eighteenth century. He considers this panel to be a mature work, dating from the mid-1660s, and will be including it in his forthcoming catalogue of the works of Jan Davidsz. de Heem. In panels such as this, De Heem shows to great effect his enormously influential integration of the colourful Flemish style with the more intimate scale and restrained mood of the northern Netherlands. At this date De Heem had probably left Antwerp for Utrecht, where he is documented in January 1665, but it is possible that he may have lived or maintained a workshop in the city in the early 1660s, as Houbraken records that Jacob Marrell left his pupil Abraham Mignon to study with him there. After the French invasion of the northern Netherlands De Heem returned to Antwerp in 1672, where he died twelve years later.

 

1. In the catalogue it is descibed as 'Op een Tafel staat een Tinne Schootel, waar op gebraden Castanjes, Oesters, Wittebrood, Citroen, Oranjeappelen, beneevens een Roemer Wyn, natuurlyk enkragtig deschilderd op paneel, door J.D. de Heem, h. 14, br. 17 dm'.
2. Certificate of Prof. Ingvar Bergstrom, dated 4 April 1986.