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Lot Essay
The present painting appears to be the work of at least three, and possibly four artists. The fruit still life elements and the wine jug in the lower right hand corner, and the silver brandy bowl in the lower left hand corner are all the work of Jan Davidsz. de Heem. The disporting putti, infant Bacchus and sleeping putto are by Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert, while the standing child on the left, who holds a blanket and gesticulates towards the drunken revelery, is more reminiscent of a Jacob Jordaens' type, and may be by another hand. Willeboirts Bosschaert collaborated with Jordaens from 1642-47 on decorative cycles painted at Constantine Huygen's request for the Huis ten Bosch, the country house of the Stadholder, Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange-Nassau. The landscape is by a further hand, reminiscent of - and perhaps by - Frans Wouters (1612-1659), a specialist of landscapes, mythological scenes and portraits.
Another version of the present lot, with major differences in the background landscape, an added curtain, and different still life elements, is in the Gemldegalerie, Kassel as by Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert (Inv. no. GK 132, see B. Schnackenburg, op. cit., plate 61).
Mr. Fred G. Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, believes that the Kassel picture was likely painted by fewer hands (perhaps only one) than the present work, and that it is probably a copy after, rather than a version of, the present lot. Mr. Meijer, on the basis of photographs (private communication, August 21, 1998), is slightly tentative in fully attributing the staffage to Willeboirts Bosschaert, but firmly believes that the still life elements are by de Heem, and datable to 1653. He compares the work to de Heem's Forest Still Life in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, which is signed and dated 1653 (Inv. no. 2082; see, for example, S. Segal, in the catalogue of the exhibition, Jan Davidsz. de Heem und sein kreis, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Feb. 16-April 14, 1991, and the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, May 9-July 7, 1991, p. 153, fig. 17b).
Mr. Meijer will include the present painting in his forthcoming catalogue raisonn on de Heem.
Another version of the present lot, with major differences in the background landscape, an added curtain, and different still life elements, is in the Gemldegalerie, Kassel as by Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert (Inv. no. GK 132, see B. Schnackenburg, op. cit., plate 61).
Mr. Fred G. Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, believes that the Kassel picture was likely painted by fewer hands (perhaps only one) than the present work, and that it is probably a copy after, rather than a version of, the present lot. Mr. Meijer, on the basis of photographs (private communication, August 21, 1998), is slightly tentative in fully attributing the staffage to Willeboirts Bosschaert, but firmly believes that the still life elements are by de Heem, and datable to 1653. He compares the work to de Heem's Forest Still Life in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, which is signed and dated 1653 (Inv. no. 2082; see, for example, S. Segal, in the catalogue of the exhibition, Jan Davidsz. de Heem und sein kreis, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Feb. 16-April 14, 1991, and the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, May 9-July 7, 1991, p. 153, fig. 17b).
Mr. Meijer will include the present painting in his forthcoming catalogue raisonn on de Heem.