Willem Kalf

With Alfred Brod, London;
Emile Wolf, New York;
Thence by descent to the present owners.

London, Alfred Brod, Catalogue of paintings by old masters, 17 October - 24 November 1956, no. 18;
New York, Finch College Museum of Art, Still Life Painters, February 1965, no. 59;
Providence, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design; Tampa, The Tampa Museum; Norfolk, The Chrysler Museum, The Discovery of the Everyday: Seventeenth Century Dutch Paintings from the Wolf Collection, 1982 - 1983, no. 23 (as dated 1658);
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen; Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Gemaltes Licht, Die Stilleben von Willem Kalf 1619-1693, 25 November 2006 - 3 June 2007, no. 1.

L. Grisebach, Willem Kalf 1619-1693, Berlin 1974, pp. 37, 289 cat. no. C11, reproduced fig. 169 (under incorrectly attributed paintings);
J. Giltaij and F. Meijer, in Gemaltes Licht, Die Stilleben von Willem Kalf 1619-1693, exhibition catalogue, Rotterdam and Aachen 2006, pp. 37-38, reproduced fig. 2; p. 42, cat. no. 1; p. 160, cat no. A1.

The panel is flat and stable, beveled on all four edges and made up of a single vertical board.The paint surface is clean beneath a clear varnish. The still life in the foreground retains good strong detail. The background, which was likely more thinly painted, is somewhat abraded and the darks have sunk a little. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals scattered retouching throughout and some strengthening to the earthenware. The retouching is not apparent to the naked eye, however; the painting requires no further conservation and is ready to hang in its present state. Offered in a simple carved dark wood frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

We are grateful to Dr. Fred G. Meijer of the RKD/Netherlands Institute for Art History, The Hague, for endorsing the attribution to Kalf.  He believes the painting to be typical of Kalf’s early painting style when he was still in Rotterdam, before his sojourn in Paris.

At the time of the publication of Lucius Grisebach’s 1974 catalogue of the works of Kalf (see Literature), the reproduction of this painting showed the figure of a woman in the left background and a niche with a bottle in the wall at upper right. These elements were removed in a subsequent restoration.