A basket of grapes and a pomegranate on a table

Although born in Antwerp, Jacob van Hulsdonck likely spent much of his youth in the southern Dutch port town of Middelburg, where he received his artistic training. Middelburg’s leading still life studio at the time was that of Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (1573-1621), with whom the young Hulsdonck certainly would have been familiar, although he is unlikely to have trained directly under him. In fact, the majority of his oeuvre displays a keen affinity with the work of Osias Beert (c. 1580-1624), the preeminent still life painter active in Antwerp upon Huldonck’s return in 1608; he may even have trained with an artist in Beert’s circle.

After joining Antwerp’s Guild of St. Luke, Hulsdonck established a prosperous workshop specializing in the depiction of fruit in bowls or baskets, most commonly placed on a wooden tabletop which is occasionally draped with a tablecloth. The present painting is a finely executed example of this format, with particular attention paid to the textures of the grapes, the jewel-like pomegranate seeds at right and the droplets of water on the exposed edge of the table, on which the artist has signed his name in full at lower left.