Osias Beert the Elder

Private collection, Switzerland;

Anonymous sale, Enghien les Bains, Hôtel des Ventes, 25 April 1982, lot 118, for €291,000;

Where acquired by a private collector;

By whom sold, Paris, Christie's, 26 June 2002, lot 8, for €265,250.

Weltkunst, 52, 1982, p. 1169, no. 8 (according to a note at the RKD);

E. Greindl, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe siecle, Sterrebeek 1983, pp. 27, 337, no. 79, reproduced in colour on p. 30, no. 8.

The popularity of this composition is attested to by the existence of another version, different only in a few details, such as the colouring of the grapes in the foreground. That version sold most recently at Sotheby's New York on 26 January 2006, lot 123 (for $296,000). Dr Fred G. Meijer has dated both pictures to 1608–1612.

Beert used a number of elements that appear in this painting across other compositions. This is particularly true of the lacquered dish containing grapes, which was studied in depth by Sam Segal, who suggested that it might have Japanese, Thai or Javan origins.¹ Despite its simple appearance, the object therefore carried significant prestige, in that its inclusion bore witness to the intensification of commercial and cultural exchanges with the East thanks to the Dutch trading companies. A similar analysis can be applied to the intricate glass filled with red wine in the upper right corner of the picture. This is most likely a Venetian inspired product made by the Flemish kilns of Antwerp and Liège, many of which employed skilled Italian glassmakers.

¹ S. Segal, Flowers and Nature: Netherlandish Flower Painting of Four Centuries, Amstelveen 1990, no. 30.