Pieter Claesz.

Acquired by the father of the present owner in the 1970s.

M. Brunner-Bulst, Pieter Claesz., Lingen 2004, p. 331, cat. no. 213, reproduced p. 333. 

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The oak panel is of good quality and is flat with evidence of worm damage. There is an original unstable horizontal join and a parallel restored split above this join. The paint layer is raised and mostly secure but where there is some instability there has been some minor paint loss. Some areas have been broken up by a fine filigree of pale shrinkage cracks, e.g. the shadow of the roemer; and some areas are pitted, e.g. the pie . In these areas clumsy and excessive augmentation has been carried out. Abraded scumbles to the background have been restored. Overall, the painting is in a good condition, the paint texture and impasto is well preserved and delicate glazes are intact. Removing the discoloured varnish would improve the tonality."
"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."

Dated 1654, this is a late work by Pieter Claesz., the foremost painter of banketje still lifes in Haarlem in the 17th Century. The intimate and densely-packed composition, rendered with a typically restrained palette, is typical of the artist's work in his final years. The composition is remarkably similar to a group of works, all from circa 1654, where the same roemer is placed to the front and side of the same three-quarter filled beer glass. Indeed, the still life formerly with Terry-Engel and now in a private collection, also dated 1654, is nearly a mirror image of the present work;¹ while the tazza is replaced by a salt-cellar crowned with a small porcelain dish and the meat pie by a large crab, the four foreground elements are retained with only slightly differing detail, although in reverse, and the roemer is again placed prominently before the beer glass. Towards the end of his career Claesz. was accustomed to repeat arrangements that he considered successful and he continued to paint such still lifes right up until the year of his death in 1660.

1. See Brunner-Bulst, under Literature, p. 331, cat. no 214, reproduced p. 333.