Lot 189: JACOB VAN HULSDONCK

STILL LIFE WITH PLUMS, GRAPES AND PEACHES IN A WICKER BASKET, WITH CHERRIES, HAZELNUTS, A BEETLE AND A BUTTERFLY ON THE WOODEN TABLETOP BENEATH
signed lower left: IVHVLSDONCK. FE (IVH in ligature)

21 by 30 in.; 53 by 76.4 cm.

oil on panel

Private collection, Versailles, France;
Anonymous sale, Paris, Loiseau & Laufaury Scp., March 31, 1996, lot 6.

This beautifully preserved still life, exquisite in its detail, was probably painted by Hulsdonck in the 1620s and must surely count as one of his grandest and most successful paintings. Here, Hulsdonck gives the composition unusual freedom with the omission of any peripheral objects, such as vases of flowers, that often clutter similar works. The details are minutely rendered and the interelation of colours, tones and objects is brilliantly observed.

Though born in Antwerp, Hulsdonck appears to have passed his youth in Middleburg, where the community of exiled Flemish protestants fleeing the Spanish Terror after 1585 included many artists and their patrons. Middleburg thus became a melting pot of artistic talent and Hulsdonck certainly knew Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder there, an older painter who was to have a marked influence on the young Hulsdonck. As time progressed Hulsdonck returned to Antwerp in 1608 and his style here was fashioned to a great degree on that of Osias Beert who had enrolled in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1608. Hulsdonck established a successful workshop specializing in the depiction of fruit in bowls or baskets placed on a wooden tabletop. Between 35 and 40 such works are known, although only one of which is dated. (1)

1. A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still life Painters Working in Oils, Leiden 2003, p. 114.