Blas de Ledesma (documented 1602-1614)

Torres Martín, having initially published the present picture and its pendant, lot 70, as by Pedro de Medina (loc. cit., 1971), subsequently identified them as the work of Blas de Ledesma, the painter from Granada who is one of the earliest definable personalities of Spanish still-life painting. This attribution has met with general acceptance, Pérez Sánchez pointing out (in the catalogue of the 1983-84 exhibition) that these paintings are 'quizás los únicos que pueden considerarse con cierta seguridad come obra de Blas de Ledesma... entre los muchos que le han sido atribuídos en los últimos años', on account of their striking similarity to the Still-Life with a Basket of Cherries in the High Museum of Art, Atlanta (for which see, for instance, Jordan, op. cit., p. 69, no. 6, colour plate 6, or Pérez Sánchez, op. cit., 1987, p. 85, pl. 72, colour); that picture was until recently the only known signed work by Ledesma and 'is still our touchstone for knowledge of the artist' (Jordan, op. cit., p. 66).

Another picture also formerly in the Cárabe and Contreras Collections and almost certainly from the same series was sold at Christie's, New York, 18 May 1994, lot 49A