Peeter Boel Antwerp 1622 - 1674 Paris

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 15 April 1999, lot 87, (as 'Circle of Giuseppe Recco');
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 27 April 2006, lot 68 (as Peeter Boel), where acquired by the present owner.

F.G. Meijer in L.M. Helmus et al., Fish. Still lifes by Dutch and Flemish masters 1550 1550-1700, Utrecht 2004, p. 235, cat. no. 11.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas is lined; the paint surface is raised but stable. There is a horizontal canvas seam along the lower part of the painting which has been restored. There is an obvious discoloured restoration to the centre of the sky covering an old damage. Under U-V light one or two minor retouchings can be seen elsewhere. The dark red ochre colour of the ground is evident through the thinness of the original paint layer. The varnish is moderately discoloured."
"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."

The present work may be compared with Boel's Still life of fish on a quay of circa 1660-65 in Dieppe, Château-Musée (inv. no. 995.1.1) in which the turtle appears in the exact same form, as do some of the fish. Although Boel could not have seen any of the early still lifes of Giuseppe Recco during his trip to Italy (Recco would have been only ten years old when Boel returned to Antwerp in 1650) the present work does bear a close resemblance to his work, indeed it was sold as by the circle of Recco. in 1999 (see Provenance). It seems probable therefore that works by Recco and his peers had reached Antwerp by 1660.

Next to some of the fish Boel has inscribed their names, for example 'RúPPen' (burbot) and 'Roie forela' (sea trout). As Fred G. Meijer points out (see L.M. Helmus, under Literature) the date of 1640 must be erroneous or added later as it does not fit with Boel's chronology. In private communication Drs. Meijer has suggested that the brown-red ground is typical of his work after his move to France in 1669.