Jan Davidsz. de Heem

Elsen Collection, Antwerp, circa 1900;
Thence by descent until sold New York, Sotheby's, 24 January 2008, lot 8, for $700,000;
With Richard Green, London, from whom acquired by the present owner.

F.G. Meijer, Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1684), doctoral diss., Amsterdam 2016, vol. I, p. 172, reproduced pp. 173 and 364, vol. II, pp. 167-68, cat. no. A 146. 

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Structural Condition The artist's panel is uncradled and is providing a secure and stable structural support. There is a small insert to the panel in the lower left corner as viewed from the reverse and what would appear to be a small repaired split in the lower right corner, just above the lower horizontal edge. There is a also a horizontal panel join or split approximately 2.5 cm below the upper edge as viewed from the reverse. Paint Surface The piant surface has an even varnish layer. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows small scattered retouchings, the most significant of which are; 1) retouchings down the left vertical framing edge, 2) a thin horizontal line of inpainting 2 cm below the upper horizontal framing edge covering the panel join or repaired split mentioned above, 3) a number of very small dots and minimal lines of inpainting on the still life which itself appears to be well preserved, and 4) small scattered retouchings which appear to cover panel grain in the background. There are other small retouchings. There maybe other retouchings beneath old opaque varnish layers which are not identifiable under ultra-violet light. Summary The painting would therefore appear 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."

Dr. Fred G. Meijer dates this elegant still life to 1651, during De Heem's first sojourn in Antwerp and his period of greatest productivity. His works during these years are characterized by a greater monumentality and depth that distinguishes him from the artists of the previous generation.

De Heem's first still lifes date from the late 1620s, when he was working in Leiden, and was influenced by the paintings of Balthasar van der Ast and the more muted style of Pieter Claesz. from Haarlem. However, by 1636 he had moved to Antwerp, where he was exposed to the freer, more decorative style of the southern Netherlands. De Heem's great achievement was to synthesize these two approaches and forge a new style that was both painterly and extraordinarily illusionistic. He is perhaps best known today for his innovative pronkstillevens or luxury still lifes, with their tables heaped with exotic food, silver, sea shells, etc., but at the same time he painted smaller works, which though simpler, convey a remarkable sense of the beauty and the physical presence of the objects depicted.

It is this more magisterial style that distinguishes his works of the 1650s. Here in the Still life with a peeled lemon, the various elements of the composition occupy a clearly defined space. This can be contrasted with a similar composition, the Still life with fruit, a façon-de-Venise glass and shrimps, in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe,¹ which Meijer dates to 1649. In the latter, the cherries, pomegranate, grapes and figs flow into one another and the composition is slightly more crowded, particularly on the left side. In the Still life with a peeled lemon, the sliced orange, the oyster, the lemon and the plums are clear, individual items, with their own space and mass. The partly peeled lemon is decorative but also serves to increase the illusion of volume and depth, by projecting into our space and leading us into the composition. De Heem then unites the various forms with the strong diagonal lines of the twining grape vine at the left and the plum branch at the right.

We see many of the same elements in a more elaborate work, Still life with fruit, a pie and various drinking vessels in the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, dated 1651.² In another, more austere work of 1652, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris,³ he uses a vertical format, but many of the compositional devices are the same. In all three works, De Heem has set the still life against a dark, undefined background, from which the fruit and tableware emerge. The curling lemon peels and gleaming plates extend beyond the tabletops, seeming to push into the viewer's space, creating a convex structure within the picture. Here, he meticulously paints the individual objects, contrasting the rough, irregular peel with the translucent interior of the fruit and with the delicate skin of the plum to the right. The last is so smooth and shiny that in it we see the reflection of a window. It is through this combination of beautifully painted surfaces and clarity of structure that De Heem created the illusionistic still lifes for which he was justly so famous in his lifetime and today. 

We are grateful to Dr. Fred G. Meijer, who has seen the painting in person, for his help in cataloguing this lot. 

1 Inv. no. 362.
2 Inv. no. 1041.
3 Inv. no. 1320.