Osias Beert the Elder

In the possession of the present owner since 1970.

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural Condition The panel has been cradled and this is ensuring an even and secure structural support. Paint Surface The paint surface has a reasonably even varnish layer although there are some slight finger marks around the framing edges and a small abrasion in the varnish in the upper left of the background. Revarnishing would therefore be beneficial. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows a discoloured varnish layer beneath more recent varnish layers and there may be retouchings beneath these discoloured varnish layers which are not visible under ultra-violet light. The most significant of the retouchings which are visible are: 1) a horizontal line running across the centre of the composition just above the grapes in the central bowl of fruit, 2) scattered spots in the background and a horizontal line which is approximately 5 cm in length just in from the right vertical framing edge, 3) an area of retouching around the base of the bowl holding the plums and other small scattered retouchings. Some of these retouchings are just visible in strong natural light. Summary The painting therefore appears to be in good and stable condition and either just revarnishing or more comprehensive cleaning could be considered.
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This painting is entirely characterstic of the 'laden-table' still lifes with their elevated viewpoint that Beert had helped pioneer in the first two decades of the seventeenth century. Although Beert's work as a flower-painter has been recognised only in the last thirty years or so, his importance as one of the most influential painters of this form of still life has always been acknowledged. As was his wont, Beert has constructed the composition around the carefully spaced and intersecting diagonals of plates of fruit and nuts, anchored at the back by a raised dish of prunes, and interspersed by standing wine-glasses. The stand beneath the dish of prunes is not distinct, but is probably the oriental lacquer box that appears in other works by Beert, such as the Still life with oysters and other dishes formerly in Berlin¹ or the Still life with fruits and wine-glasses from his studio sold, London, Christie's, 10 July 2002, lot 22. The dishes of raspberries and the blue-and-white porcelian bowl filled with apples and grapes are all staples of Beert's output, the latter habitually anchoring the foreground of the design. The distinctive glass filled with white wine on the left of the painting was no doubt Beert's own, for it recurs in numerous other works, for example that sold in these Rooms, 14 December 2000, lot 9. The close inter-relationship of these still lifes suggests that they were the product of practised production and thus are likely to be mature works, but the fact that Beert only very rarely signed and never dated his works makes a certain dating fraught with difficulty.

1. Panel, 53 by 79 cm.; reproduced in E. Greindl, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au 17e siècle, Brussels 1983, p. 183, fig. 18.