Peaches, grapes, medlars, walnuts, a hazelnut, cherries, and black raspberries with a snail, a façon de venise glass of wine, and a flute glass on a stone ledge before a niche

Cornelis de Heem was born in Leiden, the son of the eminent still life painter Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1683/84), who also served as his master. As a young boy, he moved with his family to Antwerp, becoming a member of the city’s painters guild in 1660. Beginning in 1667, he worked successively in Utrecht, IJsselstein, and The Hague, where he became a member of the city’s guild in 1676 and its Confrerie Pictura, an academic club of artists, two years later. At some point in 1691 or 1692 he returned to Antwerp, where he died a few years later.

Dated works by de Heem are only known from 1654 to 1671. Works produced after 1660, including the present painting, are characterized by a restrained chiaroscuro and depth with carefully calculated color harmonies. The bright bursts of color created by the peaches and cherries in the foreground and the inclusion of a façon-de-venise wine glass and flute glass in the background are especially close to a painting dated 1665 previously offered in these rooms (Christie’s, New York, 26 January 2011, lot 29). The arched stone niche—a recurrent element in Cornelis’s mature still lifes but one that is infrequently encountered in those of his father—creates a visually appealing and complex pictorial space and frames the arrangement of fruit, glassware, and nuts that appears on the ledge before it.