Lot 125
  • 125

Johannes Bosschaert

Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 GBP
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Description

  • Johannes Bosschaert
  • Still life with peaches, apricots and grapes in a wicker basket, with a melon, a pear, an orange and other fruit, all upon a stone ledge
  • signed with initials lower right: J B .fe·
  • oil on oak panel

Condition

The panel is uncradled, flat and stable. The paint surface is clean and the varnish is only slightly discoloured. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals strengthening to the darks of the background, particularly upper left, upper right and surrounding the uppermost leaves. There are also areas of retouching in the leaf closest to the upper margin, in the orange, and in the left-hand peach in the basket. There is scattered strengthening throughout the table top, particularly around the fly, left, and around the melon, right. Part of the signature and the area around it has also been strengthened. In good overall condition.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Apparently an infant prodigy, Johannes Bosschaert is presumed to have died young, since no trace of him has yet been found after 1628, when a Haarlem panel-maker tried to reclaim 25 guilders owed to him by a 'Joannes Busschaert, now living at Dordrecht.'1 Nine of around twenty-one undisputed works by Johannes, mostly horizontal in format, are dated between 1624 and 1627 when the artist was yet a teenager, into which period the present painting must also fall. Johannes evidently trained in the workshop of his father, the great Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, one of the first artists to specialise in the genre of flower painting in the Northern Netherlands. When his father died suddenly in 1621, Johannes was probably brought up by his uncle, Balthasar van der Ast, whose subsequent guidance resonates strongly throughout his small œuvre.

1. See A. van der Willigen and F. G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Painters Working in Oils, 1525–1725, Leiden 2003, p. 46.