Lot 301: Coenraet Roepel , The Hague 1678 - 1748 Still life of grapes, melons, peaches, plums and other fruit with morning glory and shafts of wheat in a stone niche, with a bunch of grapes and medlars hanging above oil on canvas

oil on canvas

measurements note 33 1/2 by 22 3/4 in.; 85.1 by 57.8 cm.

Brig. Sir Geoffrey Hardy-Roberts;
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, July 10, 1974, lot 23 (as by Cornelis de Heem);
Oppenheimer, Malmö, Sweden, 1986;
With Kunsthandel K. & V. Waterman, Amsterdam, by 1986, from whom acquired in 1990 by the present collector.

PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
Although he was a pupil of the portrait and genre painter Constantijn Netscher, Roepel specialized in fruit and flower still lifes, and except for a brief sojourn in Germany, remained in his native city of The Hague until his death. The high quality and finish of his works attracted an international clientele. One of the sub-genres in which Roepel specialized was the painting of still lifes in stone niches, as in the present example. There is, in fact, a Portrait of Conraet Roepel by Richard van Bleek which depicts the artist painting just such a picture (formerly with Johnny van Haeften, London; the still-life element painted and signed by Roepel himself).υ1 υThe present painting is very similar to another example in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. A 337).υ2 The Amsterdam picture, which is slightly smaller, shows fruit arranged in the same style of niche, with a stepped ledge, and with a ring above from which hangs a large bunch of grapes and medlars; it is signed and dated 1721, thus suggesting a similar dating for the present work. We are grateful to Fred Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, for endorsing the attribution to Roepel, based on photographs. 1 see R.J.A. te Rijdt, "Een getekend portret van Coenraet Roepel door Richard vam Bleeck," Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum, 39, 1991, nr. 1, pp. 113-119, illus., fig. 3. 2 see P.J.J. van Thiel, All the paintings of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1976, p. 478, nr. A 337.