Flowers in a bowl on a ledge, with scattered fruit; and Fruit in a bowl on a ledge, with scattered flowers

Admitted to the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke at the age of just thirteen, Gaspar Pieter Verbrugghen succeeded his renowned father as a leading painter of flower and fruit still lifes in the late seventeenth century. His use of impasto brushwork and the abundant, overflowing compositions of the present works show the influence that Italianate models had on the painter’s mature oeuvre, particularly the work of artists like Mario Nuzzi (1603-1673) and Michele Pace del Campidoglio (1625-1669). The works can be dated to after 1691, a date at which the artist began to sign his works using the Italianised or Hispanic ‘Pedro’ for his middle name, instead of his native ‘Peeter’.