Jan Fyt

Anonymous sale, Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 18 June 1934, lot 27;
With Guy Stein, Paris, 1934;
Henri Leoux, Versailles, 1934-1968;
His sale, Paris, Palais Galliéra, 23 March 1968, lot 49 (as attributed to Jan Fyt);
Acquired by the late father of the present owner.

Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie, Le cabinet de l'amateur, 1956, no. 52, plate IX (as dating from Fyt's French period).

E. Greindl in Le siècle de Rubens, exhibition catalogue, Brussels 1965, p. 94, no. 96 (not exhibited);
E. Greindl, Les Peintres Flamands de Nature Morte au XVIIe Siècle, Brussels 1983, pp. 100, 348, no. 19, reproduced in colour fig. 60.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a fairly hard old lining, possibly from the thirties when it changed hands, although the present cleaning could have been rather later, perhaps in the sixties. There has been scarcely any accidental damage, and the central still life is in beautiful condition with the vivid painterly touch and colour finely intact, and the ravishing detail of the birds especially well preserved. There has been some wear however in the surrounding drapery, with slightly rough darkened old retouching sometimes in the shadows of the reddish upper drapery, including two heavy patches near the middle of the top edge. There is also a short line or two coming in from the left edge with old retouching, a patch of retouching in the top left corner and also just above the peach at centre left. Not all these are visible under ultra violet light. Other strengthening can be seen around the glass at lower right and in the shadow of the wall. The signature is rather faint to distinguish. The lower drapery has had some strengthening in the shadows. However any slight wear and sometimes intrusive retouching is confined to the outer background and surrounding drapery. The still life itself retains its full Rubensian painterliness intact. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"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."

This impressive signed work is presumably a relatively early painting by the artist. Though still influenced by his teacher Frans Snyders, Fyt's vibrant brushwork and almost proto-rococo watery colours are highly evident here.

Fyt left Snyders’s studio in 1631 to travel to Paris, where he is recorded from 1633-4, and Italy, circa 1635. He was back in Antwerp by September 1641 where he worked almost continuously until his death.  The French provenance of the present work led to a suggestion (see Exhibitions) that it dated from Fyt’s French period. There are, however, no other paintings positively identified with this period and Fyt’s earliest signed and dated work was painted in 1638. After Fyt returned from Italy his style remained heavily indebted to Snyders, despite a more Italianate feel to some of his work. In the present painting the formal arrangement of the composition, use of localised colour and combination of both hunting and fruit still life elements are all typical features of his work in Antwerp in the early 1640s.

The upright composition is relatively unusual.  Fyt has chosen to display his subject on a presumed table or ledge draped with two cloths, and set against a background of a drape or curtain pulled open from the corner by a rope.  The effect is wilfully theatrical and thoroughly Baroque.  It may also have been this way of presenting the subject matter, combined with the slight suggestion of sotto in su perspective - the viewer's eye level is slightly below the draped ledge - that led to Greindl's notion that this work was painted in Paris. The perspective may indicate that it was intended as part of a room decoration, perhaps in combination with a pendant.