Lot 142: HERMAN HENSTENBURGH

HOORN 1667 - 1726 FOREST STILL LIFE WITH A SNAKE, A FROG AND BUTTERFLIES AROUND A LARGE PLANT Watercolour and gouache, within black framing lines, on vellum laid down on card; signed, lower left: H: Henstenburgh fec= 315 by 278 mm

Henstenburgh executed only a few forest still-lifes, most of them dominated by thistles. A particularly fine work of this type, featuring much the same selection of wildlife, was sold, from the Klaver Collection, in 19941, and another (unsigned) example appeared a few years later.2 This compositional type first appears in the work of Jan Davidsz. de Heem, but its leading practitioner was Otto Marseus van Schrieck, whose works in this genre inspired the similar compositions of Pieter and Alida Withoos, and Herman Henstenburgh. 1. Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 10 May 1994, lot 107 2. Sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 6 November 2001, lot 174