Nectarines and grapes in a basket on a table, with plums, oranges, a butterfly and a beetle

Jacob van Hulsdonck became a Master in the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp in 1608. Nothing is known about his artistic training but he grew up in Middelburg where he must have come into contact with the paintings of Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder and his studio. Hulsdonck's pictures are more strongly influenced by Osais Beert the Elder, who was the leading still life painter in Antwerp at the outset of the 17th Century, suggesting that Hulsdonck may have trained for a time in his circle. Hulsdonck's oeuvre, made up entirely of still lifes, is thought to consist of around 100 paintings, hardly any of which are dated. Similarly to Isaac Soreau's work, the present composition owes a debt to Caravaggio, whose Basket of flowers, of circa 1595-1601 for Cardinal Federico Borromeo in Rome, was pivotal to the development of the still life genre in both Southern and Northern Europe.