Jacques de Claeuw

Jacques de Claeuw, also known as Jacques Grief, was a co-founder of the painters' guild in his hometown of Dordrecht in 1642. In 1649 he married the daughter of Jan van Goyen and the couple moved to Leiden here he died in 1694. His work is comprised entirely of still lifes, which he produced in various cities including Haarlem, Dordrecht, Leiden and possibly Amsterdam.

This particular vanitas painting is filled with a myriad of objects that point towards the transience of life. Musical instruments, such as the baroque violin, oboe and cittern (an instrument often played by women) allude to the fleeting nature of life as comparable to the fleeting performance of music. Sealed contracts and tatty books portray man's preoccupation with world-bound knowledge and promises that cannot be taken into the next life. These are contrasted with the mysteries of the afterlife, represented by a celestial globe shrouded in a black cloth. Golden crowns are replaced by fragile worthless straw, which decorates a skull as an inversion of worldly pride and fame. Finally, the glowing ember of a candle wick on the far right, on the verge of being extinguished, symbolises the finite span of man's life.

A similar yet mirrored composition with violin, instruments and contracts was sold in these rooms in 2002.¹

¹ Sotheby's, London, 31 October 2002, lot 106.