R.E.O. Ekkart, in Verborgen. Nederlandse en Vlamse schilderijn uit de 16de en 17de eeuw uit de collective W.C. Escher, exhibition catalogue, Utrecht, Centraal Museum, 2002, pp. 64–65, 119, no. 9;
To be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Jan Davidsz. de Heem by Fred G. Meijer, currently in preparation.
The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's:
Structural Condition
The panel is uncradled and has one insert on the reverse supporting a panel join which is approximately 9 cm above the lower horizontal edge. The structural condition is sound and secure.
Paint Surface
The paint surface has a reasonably even varnish layer but there are a few minor surface abrasions and revarnishing would therefore be beneficial to ensure a more even surface coating.
Inspection under ultraviolet light shows a horizontal line of inpainting which is approximately 6 cm in length and runs in from the left vertical framing edge and corresponds to the panel join.
There are also a few small retouchings on the peaches, minimal spots on the oyster shell, small spots in the background and retouchings along the upper horizontal framing edge. There are also a few small retouchings in the tablecloth and other scattered spots of inpainting.
Some of these retouchings appear to be slightly larger than is really necessary and could therefore be reduced with more careful inpainting.
Summary
The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable 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."
Apparently unrecorded and unpublished before its appearance in the 2002 Utrecht exhibition, this beautiful little still life is one of a group of similarly composed works painted by de Heem in the early 1650s. The closest compositional and stylistic parallels seem to be afforded by a number of signed paintings all dating from or close to the year 1651, some of similarly small dimensions. These include a
Still life of fruit with a wine glass and shrimps in the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe,
1 and the
Still life with an overturned tazza, in the Prado in Madrid, in which the handling of the oysters is very comparable.
2 Two other pictures formerly with Richard Green in London are also similar: a
Still life with a fruit tart, again of 1651, and a signed but undated
Still life with oysters, hazelnuts and fruit, previously in the collection of Dorothy Hart, Wych Cross, Sussex.
3 We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer for proposing a date of execution of
circa 1650–51 for the present work.
An almost literal but slightly larger copy of the present painting by the little-known Antwerp painter Thomas Mertens which was signed and dated 1666 was formerly in the collection of Henry H. Weldon in New York, and sold New York, Sotheby's, 22 April 2015, lot 11 (fig. 1). Another anonymous copy was sold London, Christie's, 12 December 2003, lot 84.
Unusually, it is not known where and when Wilhelm Caspar Escher acquired this panel, but it is most likely that it was bought in the 1920s when he seems to have purchased many of his paintings.
1 Canvas, 35.4 by 53.8 cm. See S. Segal in the exhibition catalogue, Jan Davidsz. de Heem und sein Kreis, Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, 1991, no. 13.
2 Inv. 2090, canvas, 49 by 64 cm. See M. Diaz Padrón, Museo del Prado. Catalogo de Pinturas. Escuela Flamenca Siglo XVII, Madrid 1975, vol. I, p. 154, no. 2090 and vol. II, p. 108, reproduced.
3 Panel, 24.3 by 34 cm. Sold London, Christie's, 10 December 1993, lot 12 (£220,000)
