Jan Davidsz. De Heem

Elsen collection, Antwerp, Belgium, circa 1900;
Thence by descent to the present owner.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This picture has not been restored for a number of years. What appears to be an original join running across the extreme top edge, situated less than an inch from the top edge, is clearly broken, but there seems to be original wood on either side. The remainder of the panel is very dirty and there is a small repair in the lower right corner. When the picture is cleaned the kind of palette that one associates with artists of this type will reveal itself and although presumably some old retouches will be removed here and there, we are unable to detect any abrasion or damage in the still life itself and in many areas of the background. One is guaranteed a successful cleaning and restoration. Retouches will be required to address the fresh join in the panel at the top edge and in a few other areas where thinness may have arisen.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This elegant still life is a new addition to Jan Davidsz. de Heem's oeuvre.  Fred Meijer has confirmed the attribution and dates the work to 1651,¹ during De Heem's first sojourn in Antwerp and his period of greatest productivity.  His works during these years are characterized by a greater monumentality and depth that distinguishes him from the artists of the previous generation.

De Heem's first still lifes date from the late 1620s, when he was working in Leiden, and was influenced by the paintings of Balthasar van der Ast and the more muted style of Pieter Claesz. from Haarlem.  However, by 1636 he had moved to Antwerp, where he was exposed to the freer, more decorative style of the southern Netherlands.  De Heem's great achievement was to synthesize these two approaches and forge a new style that was both painterly and extraordinarily illusionistic.  He is perhaps best known today for his innovative pronkstillevens or luxury still lifes, with their tables heaped with exotic food, silver, sea shells, etc., but at the same time he painted smaller works, which though simpler convey a remarkable sense of the beauty and the physical presence of the objects depicted.

It is this more magisterial style that distinguishes his works of the 1650s. Here in the Still Life with a Peeled Lemon, the various elements of the composition occupy a clearly defined space.  This can be contrasted with a similar composition, the Still Life with Fruit, a Façon-de-Venise Glass and Shrimps, in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe (inv. no. 362; fig. 1), which Meijer dates to 1649.²  In the latter the cherries, pomegranate, grapes and figs flow into one another and the composition is slightly more crowded, particularly on the left side.  In the Still Life with a Peeled Lemon the sliced orange, the oyster, the lemon and the plums are clear, individual items, with their own space and mass.  The partly peeled lemon is decorative, but also serves to increase the illusion of volume and depth, by projecting into our space and leading us into the composition.  De Heem then unites the various forms with the strong diagonal lines of the twining grape vine at the left and the plum branch at the right.

We see many of the same elements in a more elaborate work, Still Life with Fruit, a Pie and Various Drinking Vessels in the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt (inv. no. 1041) dated 1651.  In another, more austere work of 1652, now in the Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 1320), he uses a vertical format, but many of the compositional devices are the same.  In all three works, De Heem has set the still life against a dark, undefined background, from which the fruit and tableware emerge.  The curling lemon peels and gleaming plates extend beyond the tabletops, seeming to push into the viewer's space and creating a kind of convex structure within the picture.  He lovingly paints the individual objects, here in the Still Life with a Peeled Lemon contrasting that rough, irregular peel with the translucent interior of the fruit and with the delicate skin of the plum to the right.  The last is so smooth and shiny that in it we see the reflection of a window.  It is through this combination of beautifully painted surfaces and clarity of structure that De Heem created the illusionistic still lifes for which he was so justly famous in his lifetime and today. 

We are grateful to Fred Meijer, who has seen the painting in person, for his help in cataloguing this still life.  He plans to include it in a catalogue raisonné of the works of Jan Davidsz. de Heem, which he is currently preparing.

1  F. Meijer, various written communications, May - October 2007.
2  F. Meijer, email October 24, 2007.