弗洛利斯·凡·迪科

With I. Rosenthal, in Amsterdam, 1966 (as Clara Peeters);
With Alfred Brod, London, 1966;
From whom acquired by Willem Russell, Amsterdam;
Thence by descent.

Amsterdam, Amsterdams Historisch Museum, 17e-eeuwse schilderijen uit de Verzameling Willem Russell, 1970, cat. no. 26;
Auckland, New Zealand, Auckland City Art Gallery, Still life in the Age of Rembrandt, 1982, cat. no. 2, illus.;
New Brunswick, New Jersey, Jane Voorhies Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, Haarlem: the Seventeenth Century, February 20th - April 17th 1983, no. 36;
New Brunswick, New Jersey, Jane Voorhies Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, on long-term loan from April 1983 until 2015. 

B. Haak, 17e-eeuwse schilderijen uit de Verzameling Willem Russell, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam 1970, p. 38, cat. no. 27, reproduced;
E. de Jongh, et. al., Still-life in the age of Rembrandt, exhibition catalogue, Auckland 1982, cat. no. 2, reproduced p. 41 and 58;
F. Fox Hofrichter, Haarlem: the Seventeenth Century, exhibition catalogue, New Brunswick 1983, p. 76, no. 36, reproduced p. 77;
A. van der Willigen & F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Painters Working in Oils 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 73.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work may not have been recently restored. The panel is flat and the paint layer is stable. There is a simple cradle on the reverse. The work may have been more recently varnished over an old layer of dirt. The only area which is completely clean seems to be immediately to the left of the melon on the far left. The plums in the bowl would certainly respond well to cleaning, and it seems the same could be said for the remainder of the picture. However, it is expected that a few retouches would become more apparent in the background and in the shadows of the objects on the tablecloth. The cherries on the far right may also be slightly thin. This is clearly a work that will improve greatly if it is cleaned and retouched.
"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."

This painting is one of only seven dated works by Floris van Dijck, one of the most important of the early Dutch painters of still-life subjects.  Only about a dozen oil paintings by him are known, with the earliest dated examples from 1610.  This one, from 1628, is the last dated work by the artist, who nonetheless lived until 1651. While on the art market in the 1960s it was attributed to Clara Peeters; Ingvar Bergström was the first to correctly attribute it to van Dijck. 

Though van Dijck exerted an enormous influence over the next generation of still-life painters in Haarlem, remarkably little is known about his life.  Born in Delft circa 1575, he trained in Haarlem, where he registered as a member of the Guild of St. Luke in 1610 and was elected deacon in 1637.  Scion of a wealthy patrician family, van Dijck is reported traveling and painting in Italy and was in Rome circa 1600, where he met the Italian painter and draftsman Cavaliere d'Arpino.  

In the present picture, the artist has combined a number of his favorite table elements, including fruits, bread and a white damask tablecloth.  Yet here there exists a less elaborate table spread of fewer objects and on a much smaller and more intimate scale than the grand bravura displayed in his earlier, extravagant banquet spreads, such as that in the Frans Hals Museum.¹  Both bowls of fruit appear in a similar format in a larger composition by the artist, currently in a private collection (sold Sotheby’s London, 6 December 1995, lot 58).  The white damask cloth set upon a table is a common element of the artist’s still lifes.  With its lowered viewpoint, concentration on a limited number of objects and its single-point perspective, this painting anticipates the works of the monochrome banketje in Haarlem over the succeeding decade.

We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, who on the basis of photographs has confirmed van Dijck's authorship. 

 

1.  Inv. no. 79; see E. Gemar-Koeltzsch, Holländische Stillebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert, Lingen 1995, vol. 2, p. 292, no. 98/2, reproduced p. 292.