Attributed to Isaak Soreau

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 12 December 1979, lot 79 (as J. van Hulsdonck);

With Paul Brandt B.V., Amsterdam, 1981 (as Jacob van Hulsdonck);

Private collection, Switzerland.

Attributed to Isaak Soreau, this charming still life is ripe with color and brimming with detail. Close observation reveals a blue dragonfly perched on one of the vines that springs from the wicker basket of grapes, and dewdrops cling to the nectarine leaves with nibbled-on edges. Along with a few other paintings accepted as autograph by Gerhard Bott, the present work is bolder and more painterly in execution than Soreau’s typical style according to Dr. Fred G. Meijer.¹ This group may represent the late works of Soreau, who rarely signed his paintings; Bott lists only five signed examples in total. Like so many of Soreau's still lifes, this panel bears the unmistakable influence of the Antwerp painter Jacob van Hulsdonck, to whom it was once attributed. 

¹  G. Bott, Ein Stück von allerlei Blumenwerk, ein stück von Früchten, zwei Stück auf Tuch mit Hecht: die Stillebenmaler Soreau, Binoit, Codino und Marrell in Hanau und Frankfurt 1600-1650, Hanau2001, cat. nos. 12 and 14.