(Hanau 1604 – after 1645)
Apricots, cherries, plums, radishes and asparagus in a wicker basket,
oil on panel, 41 x 52 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 8 July 1992, lot 15 (as Jacob van Hulsdonck);
with Klaus Edel, Cologne/London, 1993;
sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 2 October 2002, lot 221;
Private collection, Belgium

Exhibited:
Essen, Villa Hügel, 1 September – 8 December 2002, Sinn und Sinnlichkeit. Das Flämische Stillleben 1550–1680, cat. no. 84a;
Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum and Basel, Kunstmuseum, 20 March – 17 August 2008 and 5 September – 4 January 2009, Die Magie der Dinge, Stilllebenmalerei 1500–1800, cat. no. 30

Literature:
G. Bott, Die Stilllebenmaler Soreau, Binoit, Codino und Marrell in Hanau und Frankfurt 1600–1650, Hanau 2001, p. 97, no. WV.IS.48, illustrated

We are grateful to Fred Meijer for having confirmed the attribution to Isaac Soreau (verbal communication, 2002).

The present vibrant still life, with its natural abundance of what appear to be freshly picked radishes, asparagus, plums, pears and cherries, is a prime early example of the oeuvre of Isaac Soreau. Although the unpretentious wicker basket and plain wooden table-top of the setting may seem to lack the immediate symbolism of transience or opulence one expects from still life painting of the late 1620s, this arrangement of fruit and vegetables was a natural impossibility. The various fruits and vegetables depicted here only came into season at different times of year. Ranging from springtime asparagus, to autumnal plums to the peaches and cherries of Summer, all is pert and ripe. Soreau has brightly illuminated the scene, with some of the light reflected in the drops of the water at the table top’s edge, adding to the impression of a fresh harvest, with all nature’s bounty arrayed for the viewer to behold.

The presence of the wicker basket, and overall compositional scheme may be compared with a signed work by Soreau, dated 1628, conserved in the Staatliche Museum Schwerin. This kind of basket, piled with fruit and vegetables is also a frequent motif of Jacob van Hulsdonck (1582–1647) under whom Soreau likely trained in the master’s Antwerp workshop. Soreau was born in Hanau, Hesse, whose ruler Philipp Ludwig II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg (1576–1612) invited many French Hugenots and Protestant refugees from the Spanish Netherlands to settle in his demesne. Isaac Soreau’s father was also a painter, and he appears to have received his early instruction in Hanau, before moving to Antwerp and joining the studio of van Hulsdonck.