JACOBUS BILTIUS | Kitchen still life with an overturned basket of lettuce, game and vegetables, all on a wooden table draped in a white cloth

The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, 1935–60;

With Daan Cevat, London, 1960;

With S. Nystad, The Hague, from whom acquired in 1975. 

A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Küsterlerlexikon, Leipzig 1906, vol. I, p. 99;

U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. IV, Leipzig 1910, p. 34;

G. Knuttel (ed.), Gemeentemuseum 's-Gravenhage: catalogus van de schilderijen aquarellen en teekeningen, The Hague 1935, p. 24, cat. no. 72;

E. Gemar-Költzsch et al, Holländische Stillebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert, Lingen 1995, vol. II, p. 114, cat. no. 30/6, reproduced;

H.-J. Raupp (ed.), Niederländische Malerei des. 17. Jahrhunderts der SØR Rusche-Sammlung, vol. 5, Stilleben und Tierstücke, Münster/Hamburg/London 2004, pp. 66-69, cat. no. 8, reproduced in colour;

W. Pijbes, M. Aarts, M.J. Bok et al, At Home in the Golden Age, exh. cat., Zwolle 2008, p. 36, cat. no. 4, reproduced in colour.

Although Jacobus Biltius is most well-known for his trompe l'œil paintings of game birds suspended before a niche or against a monochrome wall, it is in kitchen still lifes such as the present example, signed and dated 1676, that his consummate skill in directly and accurately observing nature is further revealed. 

Biltius was born in the Hague, where he was listed in 1651 as a pupil of Carel Hardy. He lived here until at least 1660 when painter's guild records mention that he went to Amsterdam. There is no record of him working in Amsterdam, but Biltius is known to have been in Maastricht from around 1666 until 1670. He moved to Antwerp in 1671 and was made a member of the guild the following year. It was here that Biltius would have likely completed the present painting, drawing inspiration from the Flemish kitchen still lifes popular in the city at the time.