A trompe l'oeil of a wall cabinet with a violin, a hunting horn, writing implements, silver-gilt dishes and drawings, with the glass-paneled doors half opened

This painting depicts a cabinet overflowing with luxury objects. An open, inlaid and lacquered drawer reveals a pile of gold coins, with a penknife hanging below. Deeper within the cabinet are a silver-gilt inkwell, gold and silver-gilt plates, quills, sticks of red wax, and a bowl filled with gold and silver coins. Suspended from the slightly opened right door are a bow and violin, a hunting horn, and a stack of rumpled drawings. Franciscus Gysbrechts’ masterful illusion—achieved through his meticulous rendering of wood grain, broken glass, and metal—is only interrupted by the inclusion of his own signature at the lower right.

Like his father, Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts, Franciscus specialized in vanitas and trompe l'oeil still lifes. Eighteenth-century inventories suggest that he also painted landscapes, although no such works have been securely attributed to him. Franciscus produced several comparable cabinet compositions: one, in Schloss Fasanerie, Eichenzell, of nearly identical dimensions, includes a hanging flute (fig.1), while another, slightly smaller example appeared at auction in 2021 (Dorotheum, Vienna, 9 June 2021, lot 218). These subtle variations in the cabinet’s contents may reflect the specific tastes and interests of his patrons.