Master Paintings

Huybert van Westhoven

A monumental still life with fruit and various objects

Auction Closed

May 20, 03:42 PM GMT

Estimate

80,000 - 120,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Huybert van Westhoven

The Hague 1642/43 - 1712 Amsterdam

A monumental still life with fruit and various objects

signed lower left: Van Westhoven

oil on canvas

canvas: 47 ¼ by 40 ¼ in.; 120 by 102.2 cm.

framed: 61 ½ by 54 ½ in.; 156.2 by 138.4 cm.

Louis Durr (1821-1880), New York;
Given by his estate to the New York Historical Society in 1882 (acc. no. 1882.0590);
Their sale, New York, Sotheby's, 12 January 1995, lot 50, for $63,000;
There acquired by the present owner.

New York Historical Society Catalogue, 1915, cat. no. D-59;
W. Bernt, The Netherlandish Painters of the Seventeenth Century, vol. III, 1970, p. 137;
W. Bernt, Die Niederländischen Maler und Zeichner des 17. Jahrhunderts, vol. III, 1989, p. 56.

New York, The American Museum of Natural History, Invertebrates and Man, 1966.

Paintings by Westhoven, of which this is one of the best examples, are rare. It is clear from his paintings that we do know, however, that he was greatly inspired by the leading Dutch still life painter of the Golden Age, Jan Davidsz. de Heem.

In the present work, Huybert van Westhoven depicts a group of objects which would all have suggested considerable wealth and luxury – nautilus shells, citrus fruit, a lobster, and a blue and white Ming Kraak porcelain vase which would have been imported into the Netherlands from China. During the seventeenth century, Amsterdam became the largest trading port in the world, resulting in a high standard of living for the Dutch people – still lifes such as this were often commissioned to represent their wealth.