.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present, unpublished painting is an important addition to the oeuvre of Clara Peeters (for which see P. Hibbs Decouteau, Clara Peeters,1992). It is the only still life which depicts merely fruit without flowers, fish or cheese.
Although in a neglected state of conservation, it shows the high quality of Clara Peeters's art, especially in the rendering of the almonds, grapes and pears on the tazza and in the light falling on the vine of the grapes lower right.
Based on the digit '1' in the date on the painting and on the form of the Peeter Stas mark on the reverse, which was in use between 1606/9 (see J.Wadum, 'Antwerp Copper Plates', in Copper as canvas, exhibition catalogue, Phoenix, Kansas, The Hague, 1998, pp.109/10), the present lot must probably date from 1610/12. It would seem unlikely that the copper support would have been used many years after its execution by Stas.
Clara Peeters also used a copper support in the still life in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Hibbs Decouteau, op.cit., fig.20, plate VII, where dated to circa 1620), where a similar tazza with fruit is visible on the right. There are further similarities in the two pictures: in the walnut and the vine leaves.
Although in a neglected state of conservation, it shows the high quality of Clara Peeters's art, especially in the rendering of the almonds, grapes and pears on the tazza and in the light falling on the vine of the grapes lower right.
Based on the digit '1' in the date on the painting and on the form of the Peeter Stas mark on the reverse, which was in use between 1606/9 (see J.Wadum, 'Antwerp Copper Plates', in Copper as canvas, exhibition catalogue, Phoenix, Kansas, The Hague, 1998, pp.109/10), the present lot must probably date from 1610/12. It would seem unlikely that the copper support would have been used many years after its execution by Stas.
Clara Peeters also used a copper support in the still life in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Hibbs Decouteau, op.cit., fig.20, plate VII, where dated to circa 1620), where a similar tazza with fruit is visible on the right. There are further similarities in the two pictures: in the walnut and the vine leaves.