Jan Davidsz. De Heem

With Dr. Otto Fröhlich, Vienna;
Stefan von Auspitz (1869-1945), Vienna (acquired from the above by 1931);
Part of the inventory of works sold by Stefan von Auspitz to Kurt Walter Bachstitz (1882-1949), The Hague in 1931, but remained as a "deposit" in Vienna against the final part of the payment and was seized by the Nazi authorities and deposited with the VUGESTA after the Anschluss of 1938;
M. Glückselig & Co., Vienna & New York;
Hirschl & Adler, New York (acquired from the above in February 1953);
Acquired from the above by the grandmother of the present owner in February 1954.

This work is offered for sale pursuant to a settlement agreement between the current owner and the heirs of Kurt Walter Bachstitz.

New York, Hirsch & Adler, March - April 1953.  

S. Lillie, Was einmal war, Vienna 2003, p. 117, no. 235.

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 is sound and secure with no evidence of structural intervention in the past. Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer with just minor frame rubbing on the upper and lower horizontal framing edges. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows small, scattered spots and lines of retouching around the framing edges, a few small spots on the grapes and in the background and other very small scattered retouchings. There is one significant area of inpainting which is visible under ultraviolet light which measures approximately 6 x 7 cm and is in the background to the left of the leaf in the upper right of the composition and presumably covers pentimenti of an earlier leaf subsequently painted out by the artist. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in reasonably good and stable condition and no further work is required.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This still life is typical of the small-scale panels produced by Jan Davidsz. de Heem in Antwerp in the 1640s. It has been more precisely dated by Fred Meijer to 1643 following first hand inspection of the painting. It is closely comparable to the slightly smaller panel with a wine glass, grapes, an oyster and lemon peel in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.¹  Both works follow the same simple compositional structure; around a tall glass, with lemon peel curling over its lip to an arrangement of fruit beneath, intertwined with the leaves and tendrils of the grapes' vine. The form of the signature is, too, extremely similar, and it seems very likely that the two paintings were executed within a very short time of each other. 

The panel is stamped on the reverse with the maker's mark of Franchois de Bout, a panel maker active in the 1630s and 1640s. Only one other work by de Heem is known to make use of a de Bout panel; the signed Still life with fruit formerly with Galerie J.-M. Tassel, Paris, 1988 (35.2 by 52 cm), which Fred Meijer dates to 1649.

This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné on Jan Davidsz. de Heem, currently being prepared by Fred Meijer of the RKD, The Hague.

This work is offered for sale pursuant to a settlement agreement between the current owner and the heirs of Kurt Walter Bachstitz.


1. See W. Liedtke, Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven and London 2007, vol. I, pp. 316-7, no. 74, reproduced.