Isaak Soreau

Anonymous Sale, Clermont-Ferrand, France, Claude Aguttes & Vernard Vassy, 30 June 1993, lot 2;
With Galerie de Jonckheere, Paris;
Anonymous Sale, New York, Sotheby's, 22 January 2004, lot 106;
Private European Collection.

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 is in very good condition and should be hung as is. It is painted on a single piece of oak. The panel is flat and the paint layer is stable. The only retouches, which are faintly visible under ultraviolet light, are in the lower center and right side of the tablet top. However, it is safe to assume that although the varnish is blocking some of the ultraviolet, there may be other restorations here and there in the background and in the table top perhaps eliminating thinness which may have occurred. The elements in the still life itself seem to be very sharply defined and 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."

This elegant and sparse composition is highly characteristic of the work of Isaak Soreau, whose style was deeply influenced by the works of the Antwerp still life painters Osias Beert the Elder and Jacob van Hulsdonck.  It has been suggested that Soreau may have studied in Antwerp, perhaps even in Hulsdonck's studio, as many elements in his paintings are derived from the older artist's work.  In fact, a flower painting by Soreau that was on the market in 1998 was painted on a panel stamped with the coat of arms of the city of Antwerp (London, Christie's, 16 December 1998, lot 8), which further supports this theory.¹ 

Each object in Soreau's composition is meticulously rendered and given its own distinct space within the composition.  The porcelain bowl, with its bounty of ripe, red strawberries, is depicted at a slightly up-turned angle, no doubt to allow the artist to more fully display the berries within.  The grapes, halved peach and vase of flowers are all volumetric objects that occupy distinct spaces within the composition, relating to one another with a sense of harmony and balance.  Like many still life painters, objects reappear frequently in Soreau's work:  the small glass vase, for example, can be seen in the panels in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (no. A 594) and the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (acc. no. 37.1902).  The artist's only known signed and dated still life ("I. Soreau 1638"), executed on copper, is in the collection of the Staatliches Museum, Schwerin (inv. no. G 638).


1.  A. van der Willigen and F. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p.187.