(Antwerp circa 1610–1673 Paris)
A still life with pears, peaches, plums, grapes, a parrot and a squirrel,
fragments of a monogram lower right,
oil on canvas, 66.5 x 82.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s, Monte Carlo, 19th June 1994, lot 455;
Private European collection;
sale, Tajan, Paris, 17th December 1997, lot 356;
sale, Bernaerts, Antwerp, 30th March 1998, lot 86A;
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 8th December 2005, lot 244

Literature:
C. Salvi, D’après nature, La Nature Morte en France au XVIIe siècle, Tournai 2000, p. 67

After his apprenticeship with Frans Snyders, Pieter van Boucle settled in Paris, where he would stay for the rest of his life. He soon became successful as a painter of still lifes and occasionally collaborated with Lubin Baugin, whom he had met in the studio of Simon Vouet. Together with Baugin, he designed cartoons for the tapestries produced at the factory of Faubourg Saint-Germain. The present painting combines elements of the Antwerp school, above all of the art of Frans Snyders, with motifs found in Paris, such as the rug, which Van Boucle seems to have borrowed from Jacques Hupin. The attribution to Pieter Boucle has been confirmed by Jacques Faré. The present painting is registered in the RKD database under number 45508.