(Utrecht 1606–1683/84 Antwerp)
A banquet still life with a nautilus goblet, a toppled silver beaker, a sliced pomegranate and peeled lemon on a silver plate,
indistinct fragments of a signature and date at upper right: . eem. f. A... 32,
oil on panel, 75.5 x 57 cm, framed

Provenance:
Bernard Moutier Antiquitäten, Munich (1970, cf. Die Weltkunst, 15 February 1970, p. 196, and 1 March 1970, p. 230, as Dutch school of the 17th century);
sale Lempertz, Cologne, 21 May 1970, lot 102 (as Dutch school of the 17th century);
Galerie David Koetser, Zurich (1970, as Jan Davidsz. de Heem);
Galerie Pieter de Boer, Amsterdam (1974 and 1977, as Jan Davidsz. de Heem);
Galerie K. & V. Waterman, Amsterdam (1980/81, as Jan Davidsz. de Heem);
Private collection, France

Literature:
I. Bergström, Another Look at De Heem’s Early Dutch Period, 1626–1635, in: Hoogsteder-Naumann Mercury, 7, 1988, p. 46, figs. 14, 48, 49, 50, n. 11; O. Le Bihan, L’Or et l’Ombre: catalogue critique et raisonné des peintures hollandaises du 17ème et 18ème siècles, conservées au Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, 1990, p. 146, ns. 16 and 18

We are grateful to Fred Meijer of the RKD, The Hague, for his kind assistance in cataloguing the present painting. He will include the painting, previously known to him only through a photograph, in his forthcoming monograph on Jan Davidsz. de Heem. He reads the date, which has only survived as a fragment, as 1632, whereas Galerie de Boer and Ingvar Bergström interpreted it as 1635.

Erika Gemar-Koeltzsch writes about the artist in Lexikon der Holländischen Stilllebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert (Lingen, 1995, pp. 454/55): ‘Jan Davidsz. de Heem has gone down in art history as one of the leading still life painters of the 17th century and as a mediator between Dutch and Flemish art. His work combines various stylistic influences to present a new, individual pictorial language […]. Having moved to Antwerp (1635/36), de Heem was initially inspired by the Flemish painting style, which in his art is particularly associative of such names as Frans Snyders, Adriaen van Utrecht, and Daniel Seghers. However, in this painter’s oeuvre, such characteristics of Flemish painting as large, horizontal formats, colourful and dynamic renderings of kitchens animated by an abundance of victuals, monumental banquets, and fluffy bouquets of flowers, enter into a synthesis with his Dutch painting style adopted in Leiden, which is marked by smaller dimensions, more intimate and modest motifs, calm compositions, and a comparatively sober palette. In his own unique manner, Jan Davidsz. de Heem succeeded in embracing Flemish painting without abandoning Dutch ambiguity, restraint, and two-dimensionality.’

Walther Bernt comments upon Jan Davidsz. de Heem (in: Die Niederländischen Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts, vol. II, Munich, 1969): ‘His later period coincides with the heyday of still life painting […]. He arranged bouquets of flowers, baskets of fruit, victuals, seafood, and magnificent vessels and glasses in highly balanced compositions that are frequently also interspersed with floral sprays and foliate tendrils. Birds, insects, musical instruments, and clocks are rendered with great accomplishment in terms of surface texture; a characteristic feature is the impasto suggesting the rough surface of orange and lemon peels. His extensive oeuvre, which mediates between Flemish and Dutch painting, is distinguished by elegant and harmonious colours.’

Sam Segal, a specialist when it comes to still life painting, wrote about de Heem (in: A Prosperous Past, Amsterdam, 1989, p. 141): ‘Jan Davidsz. de Heem was an enormously successful painter, in his own time as well as later. He possessed not only the most prodigious technique but also a protean inventiveness that enabled him to introduce many innovations that were adopted by his colleagues. He was the most highly-esteemed still life painter in the world, not just during his lifetime but ever since, except for a period during the 18th century when some critics awarded the palm to Jan van Huysum.’

The present painting is an excellent example of the elegant and decorative art of Jan Davidsz. de Heem, who is rightly regarded as one of the most outstanding still life painters of all time.