- 57
Jan van Huysum
Description
- Jan van Huysum
- Still life with fruit on a marble ledge
- signed lower centre: Jan Van Huysum fecit.
- oil on canvas
- 15 1/2 by 12 1/2 in.
- 39.5 x 32 cm
Provenance
Possibly by whom sold, Paris, Drouot, 10–12 May 1900, lot 12, for 2640 francs to Danlos;
Private collection, Limoges;
With Colnaghi, London and New York, 2007–08 (as Jan van Huysum);
With Peter Mühlbauer, Pocking, 2009 (as Jan van Huysum).
Condition
"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."
Catalogue Note
Jan van Huysum was known within his own life time to have been a brilliant, yet reclusive artist. His works were much in demand and he received important commissions from, among others, the Duc d’Orléans, Prince William of Hesse-Kassel, Frederick-Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, and Frederick William I, King of Prussia, and yet he was notoriously secretive about his process. Any interest shown in his works by his fellow artists was interpreted as jealousy, and no one was allowed to enter his studio for fear that they would learn how he purified and applied his colours. Van Huysum's lasting fame owes much to his technical virtuosity, and the exuberant arrangements of flowers and fruits. The masterful inclusion of bugs and insects among the elements of the still life, and the silhouetting of pale stems and tendrils against a dark back ground, as we see in this elegantly balanced still life, are typical of the artist.