Willem van Aelst

Anonymous sale ('The Property of an Institution'), New York, Christie's, 9 October 1991, lot 200;
There purchased by the present collector.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting on canvas has been lined, yet not recently. The paint layer is stable. The painting is most likely clean and could be hung as is. Under ultraviolet light no retouches are identifiable except for a few above the dark bird on the left side and perhaps in the horn in the upper right corner. There may be a few other retouches but it seems obvious that the condition is marvelous.
"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."

This meticulously rendered gamepiece is a fairly late work by Willem van Aelst. Van Aelst perfected his skill in creating such highly refined still lifes during his sojourn to France and Italy from 1645 to circa 1655. There he executed works for, among others, the Florentine nobility, gaining the patronage of Ferdinand II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Henceforth he predominantly signed paintings, including the present one, in Italianate form, as "Guill.mo van Aelst." Van Aelst became the teacher of several distinguished still-life painters, including Rachel Ruysch and Maria van Oosterwijck. Samuel van Hoogstraten, a contemporary of van Aelst, wrote of his work, "[He] so excelled at art, and copied so well from life, that his painted works appeared not be a picture, but life itself."

Approximately sixty autograph gamepieces are known to have been executed by van Aelst, ranging in date from 1652-1681, far fewer of which depict fowl.¹ Furthermore, twelve of these gamepieces are in public institutions, including the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the Mauritshuis, The Hague; The National Gallery, Washington; the Staatliche Museen, Berlin; the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm; the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen; and the Kunsthalle, Hamburg; a thirteenth belongs to the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, and is held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and a fourteenth is in the Princely Collection of Scaumburg-Lippe, at Schloss Bückberg.² 

In its crisp brushwork and refined handling, this picture shows the influence of Otto Marseus van Schrieck (see lot 241), who also worked for the Medici in Florence during van Aelst's time there. Compositionally, it is reminiscent of the more ornate banquet pieces executed by Abraham van Beyeren and others from around this time, and is demonstrated by van Aelst's inclusion of multiple still life elements, all intertwined and stacked on one another. Enhancing the picture's drama and grand quality is its dark background and deep chiaroscuro, which is only further punctuated by van Aelst's ability to render each still life element with amazing detail. The carefully delineated feathers, juxtaposed against the smooth stone ledge and soft velvet tablecloth are testaments to the artist's careful study of lighting and texture.

1.  S.A. Sullivan, The Dutch Gamepiece, New Jersey 1984, p. 52.
2.  When last sold, this picture was designated as the property of an institution (see provenance).