Lot 43: Pieter Forbes (1637/8-1663 Amsterdam)

A bowl of grapes, with a melon, lemons in a porcelain bowl, an ornamental vase, a pocket watch, a crystal goblet and oranges on a decorated box on a table draped with an oriental carpet, with a book, before a tassled curtain signed and dated 'PForbes Fecit A1663.' (upper left) oil on canvas 52 x 431/4 in. (132 x 110 cm.) PROVENANCE with Arthur Tooth & Sons, London. Anon. Sale, Christie's, London, 11 March 1983, lot 49, (œ7,150 to the present owner). LITERATURE E. Gemar-Koeltzsch, Holl„ndische Stillebenmaler im 17. Jahrundert, Lingen, 1995, II, pp. 351-2, illustrated pl. 127/1. NOTES This is one of only two known works by Pieter Forbes, both of which are signed and dated 1663. The other picture was in the collection of the German Kaiser before World War I and its whereabouts today is unknown if indeed it survives at all. Hardly anything is known about the artist. He is more than likely to be the Pieter Forbes recorded in Amsterdam in 1663, aged twenty-six. The dating of the two pictures would imply a short career and the year 1663 is generally thought to have been his last.