CORNELIS NORBERTUS GYSBRECHTS | VANITAS STILL LIFE WITH A SKULL, SHEET MUSIC, VIOLIN, GLOBE, CANDLE, HOURGLASS AND PLAYING CARDS, ALL ON A DRAPED TABLE

Private collection, Holland, whence acquired in 1972.

H.-J. Raupp (ed.), Niederländische Malerei des. 17. Jahrhunderts der SØR Rusche-Sammlung, vol. 5, Stilleben und Tierstücke, Münster/Hamburg/London 2004, pp. 130–33, cat. no. 25, reproduced in colour;

W. Pijbes, M. Aarts, M. J. Bok et al., At Home in the Golden Age, exh. cat., Zwolle 2008, p. 88, cat. no. 78, reproduced in colour;

H. Bündge and L. Heese (eds), Gutes böses Geld. Eine Bildgeschichte der Ökonomie, exh. cat., Bielefeld and New York 2016, reproduced in colour p. 100.

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, At Home in the Golden Age, 9 February – 18 May 2008, no. 78;

Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Gutes böses Geld. Eine Bildgeschichte der Ökonomie, 5 March – 19 June 2016, unnumbered.

The SØR Rusche Collection has been exhibited extensively over the last two decades. Please click here for further information.

Arrangements such as this provide the viewer not only with the opportunity to reflect on the themes of the brevity of life and the vanity of worldly concerns, but also to wonder at the artist’s skill in depicting a variety of textures and surfaces, and the realistic effects of light on these objects.

Gysbrechts was well-travelled. Born in Antwerp, he worked in Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. This painting was probably executed in Germany, where it is known that Gysbrechts was in the early 1660s. Later that decade, particularly when he had moved to Denmark and was in the service of Kings Frederik III and Christian V at Rosenborg Castle, Gysbrechts abandoned pure vanitas still life paintings, such as this one, to incorporate the same themes into ever more complex trompe l’œil compositions.