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Lot Essay
This still life is closely comparable to another by Jan Davidsz. de Heem in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (see Meijer, op.cit., p. 278). Both works are unsigned, long bore spurious attributions to Abraham Mignon on account of their compositions and are datable to the final decade of de Heem’s career. In contrast to the Munich picture, however, which depicts an array of flowers, the present picture is instead brimming with fruits and vegetables. An intriguing addition are two ears of corn, which had been introduced to Europe in the late fifteenth century after the Spanish returned from the New World. The tree trunk at right, its bark peeling away, is used to frame the arrangement and appears as a similar device in de Heem’s Flowers by a stream in Liechtenstein/Vienna. This motif proved influential on later artists. Rachel Ruysch, for example, employed it on several occasions (see, for example, her early Tree trunk surrounded by flowers, butterflies and animals in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam of 1685 and the Flowers on a tree stump of the following year in the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester).
The so-called sottobosco, or forest floor, still life was popularized by Otto Marseus van Schrieck. Having spent almost a decade in Rome and Florence, van Schrieck developed a characteristic style, typified by compositions filled with reptiles, amphibians, thistles and mushrooms painted with muted, dark colors. Van Schrieck returned to Holland in 1657, settling in Amsterdam, and it is likely that de Heem became familiar with his work there. De Heem himself produced several forest floor still lifes, including the present example, imbuing them with his own characteristically complex arrangements of fruit and flowers and using a more vibrant and varied palette than van Schrieck had. Indeed, as Fred Meijer has discussed, these paintings represent an ‘interesting amalgam of his [de Heem’s] own out-door fruit still lifes and "forest-floor" paintings…They are good examples of how Jan Davidsz. de Heem picked up subjects and trends he came across, giving his own twist to them’ (op.cit., p. 233).
The present painting was inscribed, probably in the nineteenth century, with a false Abraham Mignon signature. As evidenced by the similar confusion over the attribution of the Munich painting, Mignon's style and compositions often closely resemble de Heem’s later work. The present painting was subsequently copied, probably twice, by the German still life painter Ernst Stuven (one signed, sold Sotheby's, London, 6 December, 1995, lot 170; the other, sold Sotheby's, London, 18 October, 1967, lot 3, as by Mignon), who settled in Amsterdam in the second half of the 1670s. Though painted in Antwerp, Stuven’s early copies suggest this painting likely arrived in Amsterdam shortly after its production.
The so-called sottobosco, or forest floor, still life was popularized by Otto Marseus van Schrieck. Having spent almost a decade in Rome and Florence, van Schrieck developed a characteristic style, typified by compositions filled with reptiles, amphibians, thistles and mushrooms painted with muted, dark colors. Van Schrieck returned to Holland in 1657, settling in Amsterdam, and it is likely that de Heem became familiar with his work there. De Heem himself produced several forest floor still lifes, including the present example, imbuing them with his own characteristically complex arrangements of fruit and flowers and using a more vibrant and varied palette than van Schrieck had. Indeed, as Fred Meijer has discussed, these paintings represent an ‘interesting amalgam of his [de Heem’s] own out-door fruit still lifes and "forest-floor" paintings…They are good examples of how Jan Davidsz. de Heem picked up subjects and trends he came across, giving his own twist to them’ (op.cit., p. 233).
The present painting was inscribed, probably in the nineteenth century, with a false Abraham Mignon signature. As evidenced by the similar confusion over the attribution of the Munich painting, Mignon's style and compositions often closely resemble de Heem’s later work. The present painting was subsequently copied, probably twice, by the German still life painter Ernst Stuven (one signed, sold Sotheby's, London, 6 December, 1995, lot 170; the other, sold Sotheby's, London, 18 October, 1967, lot 3, as by Mignon), who settled in Amsterdam in the second half of the 1670s. Though painted in Antwerp, Stuven’s early copies suggest this painting likely arrived in Amsterdam shortly after its production.