Lot 73: Shells, shrimps, peaches, a façon-de-Venise wine glass, a pewter tankard, a silver-gilt cup and cover, shrimps, nectarines and a lemon on a pewter plate, with grapes, oysters, a bread roll and a basket of fruit surmounted by a pewter plate with

Jan Davidsz. de Heem (Utrecht 1606-1684 Antwerp) Shells, shrimps, peaches, a façon-de-Venise wine glass, a pewter tankard, a silver-gilt cup and cover, shrimps, nectarines and a lemon on a pewter plate, with grapes, oysters, a bread roll and a basket of fruit surmounted by a pewter plate with a ham, on a partly-draped table signed 'J. D heem f.' (lower left) oil on canvas 29¾ x 39 7/8 in. (75.6 x 101.4 cm.)

Acquired in a Paris auction in 1872 by the architect Heinrich von Ferstel (1828-1883), and by descent to the present owner.

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY


The attribution of this work has kindly been confirmed by Fred Meijer who will include it in his catalogue raisonné of the work of the artist, due for publication in 2008. This is a splendid example of the sumptuous still life or pronkstilleven - a subject that Jan Davidsz. de Heem pioneered in Antwerp and for which he is most famous. The picture was painted in the 1640s, in what was perhaps the artist's most creative period and the decade in which he was constantly experimenting with new compositions and new ways of rendering detail. A number of dated works from the period have allowed de Heem's stylistic development to be traced in considerable detail and, in this way, Fred Meijer has managed to date undated works from the 1640s with great accuracy and certainty. He dates this example to 1645, comparing the handling with a smaller, dated still life of that year (private collection). In composition, it relates closely to a signed work in the Swedish Royal collection which he has dated to 1645/6. Similarities can also be established with one of de Heem's core works from the period, Still Life with a Seascape, of 1646, in the Toledo Art Museum, Ohio. Meijer has also observed that the signatures of all these paintings are very similar in terms of their calligraphy which further confirms their common date of origin.

Several of the objects used in this picture can be found in other works by the artist. The re-use of the same or very similar motifs was quite usual even for a major artist like de Heem. The silver-gilt cup and cover, for instance, appears for the first time in a still life, datable to circa 1639 (formerly with Noortman, Maastricht), and again, amongst other works, in a still life of circa 1643 (Chalon-sue Saône, Musée Denon). The large shell - Turbo marmoratus from the East Indies - recurs in several of de Heem's still lifes from the 1640s, among them a painting in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, in which it appears in the same position. Fred Meijer has suggested that this is the first work by the artist to feature a nail in the wall behind the still life, a device conceived by de Heem to enhance the sense of depth, that became almost a signature motif of his work in the next decade.

The full range of de Heem's technical mastery can be evinced in the present work by the attention paid to detail, accents of light and spatial precision. Tiny details such as the shrimps, pips and water droplets are meticulously observed and combined successfully with broader, more painterly handling of other elements such as the silver-gilt cup and cover and the wine glass that display his unrivalled ability to render light and texture.