Jan Baptist van Fornenburgh

Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Christie's, 14 December 1990, lot 86, for £82,500, when bought by the present owner.

L.J. Bol, Holländische Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts nahe den grossen Meistern, Braunschweig 1969, pp. 46-7, reproduced p. 48, fig. 40 (as whereabouts unknown).

The following condition report has been provided by Hamish Dewar, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. Structural Condition The artist's panel is even and secure. There is evidence of a join running vertically down through the centre of the panel and what would appear to be a repaired split, which runs down from the upper horizontal framing edge, and is in the upper right as viewed from the reverse. Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows a very thin line of retouching running down the central join in the panel and also an area corresponding to the repaired split which measures approximately 5 x 1 cm, and is between the butterfly in the upper left of the composition and the upper horizontal framing edge. There are also a number of scattered spots of inpainting and small scattered retouchings in the background. Summary The painting therefore appears to be in good and stable condition and no further work is required.
"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."

Laurens Bol (see Literature) saw an almost puritanical simplicity in this intimate still life, composed on a diagonal, which he viewed as prefiguring Adriaen Coorte's similarly composed still lifes of fifty or more years later.  In fact, Fornenburgh's still lifes including this one, reflect the influence of his townsman Jacques de Gheyn.

For a related composition, in which the butterfly, the lizard and the mouse recur, the latter two in reverse, see P. Gammelbo, Dutch Still-Life Painting from the 16th to the 18th Centuries in Danish Collections, 1960, pp. 34-5, no. 33, reproduced.  The same rose recurs in another simple Fornenburgh composition with a lizard and a tulip aranged on a stone ledge set on a diagonal in a painting formerly with Cramer, The Hague.¹

1.  See L.J. Bol, Goede Onbekenden, Utrecht 1982, p. 88, reproduced p. 89, fig. 5.