Osias Beert the Elder Antwerp (?) circa 1580 (?) - 1624

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Description

Osias Beert the Elder
Grapes in a Dish, Apples in a Silver Tazza, Hazelnuts and Medlars on Pewter Plates, Glasses and a Bread Roll on a Wooden Table
oil on panel

Provenance

With P. de Boer, Amsterdam;
R.G. de Boer, Laren, The Netherlands, by 1963.

Exhibited

Laren, Singer Museum, Modernen van Toen, June 15 - September 1, 1963, under no. 8.

Literature

E. Greindl, Les Peintres Flamands de Nature Morte au XVIIe siècle, Sterrebeek 1983, p. 30, pl. 8 and p. 337, no. 79.

Catalogue Note

In the present panel, Beert used a number of elements which appear in other of his paintings. In particular, the exotic, lacquered dish containing the grapes appears in a number of pictures by Beert, and has been studied in depth by scholar Sam Segal, who has suggested that it might be Japanese, Thai or Javan (see S. Segal, Flowers and Nature: Netherlandish Flower Painting of Four Centuries, Amstelveen 1990, cat. no. 30). Thus, despite its simple appearance, the object carried enormous prestige, insofar as it bore witness to the intensification of commercial and cultural exchanges with the East thanks to the Dutch trading companies.

Beert took great delight in rendering the various elements he brought together in this composition. He minutely observed, and skillfully reproduced characteristics such as the smooth shine of the grapes' skin, the grain of the ripe apples' peel and flesh, the light fluffiness of the leavened bread, the contrasting shines of silver and pewter, and the fragile transparency of the wine filled and empty glasses. Another fascinating aspect of this picture is Beert's use of the support in the representation of the wooden table top. The artist employed thin semi-translucent glazes, which, in this case, allowed the grain of the wooden panel to show through in the area of the tabletop.