Lot 192: WILLEM KALF

STILL LIFE WITH A SILVER GILT JUG, A WAN-LI PORCELAIN BOWL WITH CANDIED FRUIT AND A PEWTER PLATE WITH A PEELED LEMON
signed lower left: W. Kalf

30 1/4 by 23 5/8 in.; 76.8 x 60 cm.

oil on canvas

London, Gebr. Douwes Fine Arts, Opening Exhibition, 1980, cat. no. 9;
Leeuwarden, Fries Museum, Van Jan Steen tot Jan Sluijters. De Smaak van Douwes, 1998, cat. no. 8;
Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Gemaltes Licht. Die Stilleben von Willem Kalf, 1619-1693, March 8 to June 3, 2007, no. 14.

H. E. van Gelder, W.C. Heda, A. van Beyeren, W. Kalf: Amsterdam 1941, p. 53, reproduced p. 47;
I. Bergström, Dutch Still-Life Painting in Seventeenth Century, London 1956, pp. 270-72, reproduced fig. 224;
L. Grisebach, Willem Kalf 1619-1693, Berlin 1974, pp. 96-100 and 234, cat. no. 59, reproduced fig. 66;
Leeuwarden, Fries Museum, Van Jan Steen tot Jan Sluijters. De smaak van Douwes, 1998, cat. no. 8, reproduced in color;
J. Giltaij and F.G. Meijer in Gemaltes Licht. Die Stilleben von Willem Kalf, 1619-1693, Munich and Berlin 2006, pp. 70, 71, note 3 and pp. 74-76, cat. no. 14, reproduced.

Mrs. K. Kan-Türk, Amesterdam;
Dr. H. Schieffer, Amsterdam;
By inheritence to J. Schieffer, Bissum;
J. Schullin, Amsterdam, 1936;
With Curt Benedict, Paris 1937;
Private collection, The Netherlands, 1941;
With D. A. Hoogendijk & Co., Amersterdam before 1946;
Dr. W. Blooker, Amsterdam, 1948;
With Gebr. Douwes Fine Art Fine Art, Amsterdam and London, 1977-1980;
Private collection, Germany;
With David Koetser, Zürich, 2004-05;
With Robert Noortman, Maastricht, 2005.

Still Life with a Silver Gilt Jug is probably the earliest known pure still life by Willem Kalf and Meijer makes a compelling case for its having been painted in 1641 or 1642, before Kalf left the Netherlands and moved to Paris. (1) He notes that Kalf's handling of the medium is somewhat drier than in his Paris paintings and the colors more saturated. (2) Furthermore, with the exception of the knife handle with horse's hoof at the far right, the various elements in the still life do not appear in any other paintings from Kalf's French period but do occur in earlier Dutch and Flemish works. The Wan-li bowl, for example, is of a type that can be found in Dutch pictures from the last quarter of the sixteenth century onwards, but the candied fruit within it was unknown to French still lifes of this period. The largest and most striking element in the composition -- the silver gilt pitcher -- is in fact not an actual piece of metal work, but was taken from a 1581 engraving by Cherubino Alberti after a design by Polidoro da Caravaggio. Kalf faithfully reproduced the complicated design of the jug, but shifted the viewpoint slightly so that we look down on the pitcher, rather than upwards as in the print.

While the Still Life with a Silver Gilt Jug goes far beyond the small peasant interiors of Kalf's Rotterdam period in its composition and handling, it reflects Kalf's youthful energy and exuberance. The shining silver pewter plate on which is balanced extravagantly curled lemon peel juts so far out over the edge of the table we half expect to hear it clattering to the floor. The Wan-li bowl and the silver cover for the sugar canister are balanced at rakish angles to each other and the other objects further energizing and slightly destabilizing the arrangement. However, most striking is the silver gilt jug, which although it is pushed to the right, still seems to occupy the center of the composition. It was an object that did not exist in Kalf's time, and perhaps never existed, but its bright golden color and elaborate motifs of genii satyrs, cornucopias and fiery dragons are a striking contrast to the relative simplicity of the other objects on the table.

1. F. G. Meijer in Gemaltes Licht, pp. 74-76. Grisebach had previously considered it to be one of Kalf's first Parisian still lifes and dated it prior to 1643. See Literature above.
2. F.G. Meijer, Op cit., p. 74.