Grapes, a Nautilus shell, a flute, a silver beaker on a plate, a peeled lemon and a lobster on a draped table

The present lot is an addition to the artist's oeuvre, published by F. Meyer, 'A fragment of a 'Pronkstilleven' by Jasper Geerards in the Bredius Museum', Mercury, IV, 1986, p.43. It is to be compared with three other signed still lives of relatively simple compositions and small upright formats, of which two are dated 1648 (International art market, 1954; Meyer, op.cit. fig.5; Sale, Frankfurt, 10 December 1913, lot 8; Meyer, fig.6; F. Rappe collection, Stockholm; Meyer, fig.7). Both in composition and style these works show the influence of Jan Davidsz. de Heem, who settled in Antwerp in 1636 and whose work of the 1630s shows the same clear-cut compositions in upright format as in the Geerards ('Still life with lobster and Nautilus shell', 1634, Staatgemäldegalerie, Stuttgart; S. Segal, Jan Davidsz. de Heem en zijn kring, 1991, no.6, with ill. and 'Still life with Nautilus shell and ewer', 1632, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, Segal, op.cit., p.135, fig.6B). This suggests that Geerards may have been taught by De Heem before becoming master in 1644 as recorded in Ph. Rombouts, Th. van Lerius, De liggeren en andere historische archieven van het Antwerpse Sint Lukasgilde, II, 1872, p.65 and 162.

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