Osias Beert the Elder

Perhaps bought in Paris, since the reverse bears the framer's label of J. Boyer, 35bis Rue Fontaine;
In the possession of the present owner's grandmother, and thus probably in the same family collection since at least the 1920s.

The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a fine oak panel with one central joint, which has been reglued and has a narrow line of retouching. There is old black priming across the back. One fairly old crack runs from the upper left edge slanting up to the top half way across. This has a wider overlapping band of old retouching, with a few recent touches. A faint curve in the panel overall appears old. The old varnish is misty and slightly crystallised with age. Clearly the painting has remained untouched over a long period, and may only have had a single intervention in its entire life. The brown of the table appears rather desiccated, with many darkened little old retouchings scattered everywhere, apparently gratuitous or over craquelure, or simply a response to naturally increased transparency with time. The bowls of fruit, the bread and every object on the ledge are magnificently intact. The beautiful preservation for instance of the peaches in every delicate nuance of their glazing, the immaculate finish of the glasses against the apparently unworn background, the perfect veins in the leaves or crispness in the crust of the loaf or curl of the nuts, throughout the delicate surface is extraordinarily complete and intact. The Chinese bowls may initially have been blue and white, with smalt blue fading to grey. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
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This characteristic still life by Beert appears to be unrecorded.  Not much is known about his life and circumstances, but he was received as a Master in the Antwerp Guild in 1602, and since only still lifes by him are known, he must be accounted one of the pioneers of the genre.  The majority of his works are unsigned - Edith Greindl lists only twelve signed paintings among the approximately ninety paintings that she records, and none are dated.¹

1.  E. Greindl, Les Peintres flamands de Nature Morte au XVII^e Siècle, Brussels 1983, pp. 335-7.