Lilies and Roses in a Wanli Kraak porselein Vase, Tulips in a Roemer, Cherries and wild Strawberries on a Wanli Kraak porselein Plate, a bread Roll, Apricots and Pears on a pewter Plate and Faon de Venise wine Glasses with a Butterfly

Osias Beert was one of the principal exponents of the archaic formula of still life painters in which objects are seen from above. While his actual date of birth is unknown, he was apprenticed to the Antwerp painter Andries van Baseroo in 1596, and six years later in 1602 he was formally received as Master into the Guild of Saint Luke. Although stylistically his work is allied to that of his contemporaries Peter Binoit, Ambrosius Bosschaert I and Georg Flegel, it is distinguished by a strong use of chiaroscuro that is more reminiscent of the Utrecht master Roelandt Savery. Both these artists seem to have been more concerned with creating subtle atmospheric effects and a more descriptive rendering of the surface textures of the objects involved, as opposed to their contemporaries' desire to give a full pictorial account of each and every object depicted, often in defiance of perspective. In this sense, and in their fields, both artists were by far the greatest innovators of their day.

As Fred G. Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorisches Documentatie, The Hague, has noted it is extremely hard to date any of Beert's work, and the artist provided us with very few clues with which to attempt a chronological construction of his oeuvre. No dated works by the artist are in fact known. The present hitherto unrecorded painting is a complex and exceptional example of Beert's work in which he unusually restricts his composition largely to fruit and flowers. While displaying his customary dispersal of components in a tightly balanced grouping on the table, the cooler, clearer tones suggest that this painting may be added to a group of works, probably executed between 1610-20, in which he has moved away from the more archaic compositions thought to date from the first decade of the century, towards a more coherent definition of space, and a more delicate rendering of texture. These include the Still Life with Oysters and Sweetmeats, in the Muse royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Inv. no. 1087, and the Bowl and Vase of Flowers, with John Mitchell and Son, London, 1983. As Griendl notes, in this period Beert also introduced the single vase of flowers to his oeuvre, and displayed a strong interest in the contrasts within his compositions of lights and shadows, apparent also in the present work (see Edith Griendl, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe sicle, 1983, p. 28). Beert used objects that must have been in his own possession, since they reappear in several paintings by the artist. In the present lot these include the blue and white vase, which is the central focus in his Still Life of Fruit, a single Vase of Flowers, and Bowls of Nuts, sold at Christie's, Amsterdam, May 11, 1994, lot 164 (DFL1.400,000=$750,000), appearing again in a more sparse, but similarly balanced Still Life of Flowers and Fruit, formerly in the Majorie Wiggin Prescott collection, sold in these Rooms, Jan. 9, 1981, lot 15. The elegant fluted faon de venise glass, though rarely used, is one of the objects in A Breakfast Still Life formerly with Alfred Brod, London, exhibited at the Art Treasures Exhibition, Bath, May 29-June 7, 1958, no. 349; and the unusually shaped red wine glass can also be seen in the background of an upright composition of Oysters and Sweetmeats sold at Sotheby's, Monaco, Nov. 29, 1986, lot 327).