Pedro de Camprobín y Passano

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 work has been lined. The stretcher is not old. There is quite a cracked surface throughout, as is fairly typical of these works. The paint layer seems to be very healthy, particularly in the fruit. Under ultraviolet light, it is hard to identify retouches except in a spot beneath the glass bowl in the upper left and the shadow of the same plate and bowl has been strengthened. There are some retouches in the pomegranate and pear on the right and a couple of spots in the grapes. The shadows of the two peaches nearest the center have also received retouches. The retouches are mostly very heavy handed and the lining is not very successful, but the condition of the work is extremely good. A re-examination of the restoration would be very beneficial.
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Likely dating to circa 1652-1655, this canvas ranks among Pedro de Camprobín’s best fruit still-lifes.  Camprobín renders this still life of a basket of fresh grapes surrounded by fruits and tableware with fluid brushstrokes, sophisticated details, and a quiet refinement.  Although no date is visible, the style and details present are consistent with other works of the period.  The step holding the saucer and glass bowl at the left also appears in Camprobín’s Still Life with Game Fowl (1653, The Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist Unversity, Dallas), and the same wine glass is visible in his Basket with Peaches and Plums (1654, Museo del Prado, Madrid, inv. no. PO7916).  

Camprobín’s long and successful career began in Toledo, the birthplace of Spanish still-life painting, where from 1619-1624 he was apprenticed to Luis Tristán.  Towards the end of the third decade of the 17th century, Seville succeeded Toledo as the artistic and still-life capital of Spain.  Marriage documents record Camprobín's move to Seville in 1628, where he joined many other celebrated still-life artists, including Francisco and Juan de Zurbarán, and he quickly became a maestro pintor in the city's artist guild.  By the 1650s, Camprobín had developed an independent artistic spirit that proved to be one of the hallmarks of his career and helped secure his position as Seville's pre-eminent artist in the genre. According to Peter Cherry and William B. Jordan, Camprobín's works demonstrate how he, more than any other artist of the period, “gave lasting expression to the charm and elegance of life in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.”¹ 

We are grateful to William B. Jordan for confirming the attribution to Pedro de Camprobín on the basis of photographs and for providing a completion date of circa 1652-1655.

1. P. Cherry and W. Jordan, Spanish Still Life From Velasquez to Goya, p. 110.