Beskrivning: Se även beskrivning i den engelska versionen

Catalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 194: 
 
Technical notes: The painting’s support is an oak
panel (± 0.4–0.5 cm thick) consisting of a single radial
board with a horizontal grain. Bevelling occurs along
three edges on the verso (not along the top). The panel
has a slight convex warp across the wood grain. Saw
marks are visible on the verso. No inscriptions or marks.
Dendrochronological examination and analysis have
determined a felling date for the tree between c. 1645 and
1655. The wood originates from the Baltic region. Under
the assumption of a median of 15 sapwood rings and a
minimum of 2 years for seasoning of the wood, the most
plausible date for use of the panel would be 1653 or later.
Although the painting may have been slightly trimmed
along the top edge (the illusionistically painted motif of a
nail hammered into the back wall at the top left has been
partially cut off), the present dimensions approximate
those of Jan Davidsz. de Heem’s original composition,
now in a private collection (oil on wood, 27.5 x 39 cm), of
which this painting is a copy.

The preparatory layers consist of a thin, brush-applied
white chalk ground, followed by a light brown imprimatura
that extends to the edges. The imprimatura
remains visible in places, for example, through the thinly
applied paint layers of the dark grey background and in
the grapes. Infrared reflectography partially revealed the
presence of a dark underdrawing, a rapidly executed,
concise sketch done free-hand in a dry medium, probably
black chalk, delineating the contours of the forms, sometimes
with multiple, fine, parallel lines, for example, the
grapes on the left, the interior of the halved peach, the
branch of the plums, the edge of the pewter plate, the
edge of the table, and the crayfish in the right foreground.

Paint is applied thinly in opaque and semi-transparent
layers, with moderate impastos in the lights (on the
grapes, the crayfish, the edge of the pewter plate), thickly
applied, viscuous paint in the peaches, and translucent
dark red glaze used in the shaded parts of the plums, the
crayfish shells and the purple grapes on the left. The
highlights range from brittle white lines, such as those
along the lower edge of the pewter plate and the contours
of the individual grape leaves, to impasted white
dots or squiggles applied to the grapes and the prickly
shell of the crayfish. To create the characteristic “dew”
on the red grapes on the left and the blue plums, a matte
layer of viscuous pale blue paint is lightly scumbled over
a uniform opaque red brown underpaint, leaving the
underpaint partially visible, after which a dark red glaze
is applied inside the contours. In the white grapes on the
right, the same pale blue paint is scumbled over a light
yellow green layer and in the blue grapes on the left, it is
applied over a dark blue underpaint. There are a number
of small pentimenti in the painting process, some visible
to the naked eye: the curled tail and both claws of the
crayfish in the foreground were initially painted slightly
larger; the claw of the second crayfish, “in the back”, was
initially slightly larger, extending further to the right.
The painting is generally in very good condition. A
slightly discoloured layer of old varnish is present. Abrasion
is moderate overall. Retouching covers abrasion and
losses of the paint and ground layers along the left and
bottom edges. Scattered small retouches occur, mainly
concentrated in the background. The painting underwent
conservation treatment in 1939, 1957 and 1979.

Provenance: Niklas Holterman, Forsby; Martin von
Wahrendorff, Näsby, until 1863 (inv. 1863, no. 71);
Bequeathed by Martin von Wahrendorff in 1863; KM
1861/1867, no. 1271 (as J. Pieter van Slingelandt or J.van
Sluis).

Bibliography: NM Cat. 1867, p. 46 (as J. P. van Slingelandt
or J. van Sluis); Sander IV, p. 124; Göthe 1887, p.
248; Göthe 1893, p. 304; Granberg 1911–1913, III, p. 42
no. 136; Greindl 1956, p. 188; NM Cat. 1958, p. 187;
Greindl 1983, pp. 132, 308, 382 no. 64, fig. 222; NM
Cat. 1990, p. 336; Van der Willigen and Meijer 2003, p.
186.

In this modest still life, a wooden table, partially covered
with dark blue drapery, holds an arrangement of
peaches and a branch of blue plums on a pewter plate,
with bunches of green, red and blue grapes with vine
and leaves attached, and two boiled crayfish. At the
back, the leaves and elegantly spiraling tendrils of the
grapevine form an arch over the display of fruit.
The present picture, which bears an authentic signature
by Joris van Son, is a faithful copy after
a signed original by the Dutch still life painter Jan
Davidsz. de Heem, which was on the British art market
in 2002.1 De Heem’s original is, in turn, a
close autograph variant of one of his own compositions
now in Edinburgh, which is signed and dated
1650.2 Both paintings by De Heem probably date to
approximately the same year. The copy by Van Son
can be dated, on the basis of dendrochronological
analysis, to the early to mid-1650s (see Technical
Notes). After spending nearly a decade in Leiden, the
Utrecht-born De Heem had moved to Antwerp by
1635, becoming a member of the local guild of St.
Luke in early 1636. While there is no documentary
evidence to suggest that Van Son knew De Heem personally,
it is perhaps most likely, in view of his strong
dependence on De Heem’s work, that he spent some
time as a pupil or assistant in the older master’s
Antwerp studio, perhaps during the early 1640s. In
that period De Heem gradually turned away from the
oversized sumptuous pronkstilleven, and began producing
small-scale, comparatively more modest fruit
pieces with glasses, oysters or other foodstuffs, that
would sell quite easily on the art market.3 These
small-scale still lifes, such as the one copied by Van
Son, are simpler in terms of both composition and
colouring, yet the rendering is highly refined.
De Heem’s original is quite typical of his
more modest still lifes of the 1640s and ’50s. It is a virtuoso
display of his ability to capture material texture
in paint, from the mouth-watering, realistically
depicted fruit and crustaceans to the skilfully painted
reflective surface of the pewter plate. The fruits are at
the peak of ripeness, one of the peaches broken open
to reveal succulent flesh, a favourite motif; the crayfish
are temptingly presented, ready for immediate consumption.
The bright light focused upon the still life
objects placed before a dark wall, lends the picture a
peculiar mood of intimacy. The effects of light are
rendered with extraordinary precision, most conspicuously
in the image of the (studio) window reflected in
the polished plums. Apart from the soft handling of
outlines, quite different from De Heem’s sharp and
tight contours, Van Son’s copy reveals little of his personal
style. He skilfully mimics De Heem’s fluent,
meltingly soft brushwork, which combines areas of
relatively thinly applied paint with areas of saturated
paint and impastos, enhancing the sensual appeal of
the depicted foods. Van Son adopted several of the
technical innovations used by De Heem (see Technical
Notes), though without being able to achieve De
Heem’s level of perfection.4 To obtain the “roundness”
of the various fruit and crustaceans, he applied uniform
layers of saturated underpaint as a basic hue, followed
by a lighter-coloured viscous paint applied
locally and scumbled over the dry underpaint, left partially
visible. For instance, in the blue plums the characteristic
matte layer of “dew” was rendered by applying
a pale blue paint lightly scumbled over an opaque
red brown underpaint, followed by a deep red glaze.
While the fruit and crustaceans seem depicted with
great accuracy and detail, in places where the objects
recede into the shadow, being partially overlapped by
their illuminated counterparts, the artist often suggested
shapes with just a few touches of colour, a stylistic
device to create a spatial illusion widely used by
artists later in the17th century. De Heem’s characteristic
use of thin, brittle white lines for certain highlights
is recognizable in Van Son’s copy, as is the handling of
the thick grape leaves with wavy margins and strongly
pronounced veins, a signature element of De Heem’s
original. However, in Van Son’s painting a warm sfumato
binds together the more colourful, strongly lit
still life elements in the foreground, the orange red
crayfish, the dark blue plums, the pink and yellow
tones of the peaches, which harmonize with the grey
pewter plate, blue tablecloth and dark grey background.
Other still lifes of this type, equally restrained in the
composition and colouring, can be found in Van Son’s
oeuvre during the later 1650s, for example, two signed
paintings of 1656, which were on the British art market
in 19815 and 1991,6 and a Still Life with Fruit and
Oysters of 1659 in an Austrian private collection, which
contains a similar pewter plate as in the present picture.
7 Absent any specific allusions to vanitas and
Christian ideals, the primary objective of this still life
composition must be an acknowledgment of the abundant
and richly varied gifts of nature.
CF

1 Oil on wood, 27.5 x 39 cm; sale, London, Sotheby’s, 12 December 2002,
lot 25; photo on file at the RKD, The Hague.
2 Oil on wood, 33.7 x 41.6 cm, with a 3.5 cm wide strip added on the left,
National Gallery of Scotland, inv. no. 1505, see Greindl 1983, p. 360 no.
48; a copy made after the panel was extended was sold at Christie’s, Amsterdam,
18 November 1993, lot 123, photo on file at the RKD, The
Hague.
3 The first dated example is the Still Life with Shrimp, Oysters, and Fruit,
signed and dated 1642, oil on wood, 46.5 x 58.5 cm, Salzburg, Residenzgalerie;
see Greindl 1983, p. 362 no. 116; and A fruitful past – A survey of
fruit still lifes of the Northern and Southern Netherlands from Brueghel to Van
Gogh (exh.cat., P. de Boer, Amsterdam and Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum,
Brunswick, 1983), no. 34, repr. (S. Segal).
4 See Amsterdam 1999, no. 6.
5 Oil on canvas, 28.5 x 43.0 cm, signed and dated “1656”, sale, London,
Sotheby’s, 7 October 1981, lot 97; see photo on file at the RKD, The
Hague.
6 Oil on canvas, 29.0 x 42.0 cm, signed and dated “1656”, sale, London,
Sotheby’s, 11 December 1991, lot 146; see photo on file at the RKD, The
Hague.
7 Oil on canvas, 38.5 x 53.0 cm, signed and dated “1659”, sale, London,
Sotheby’s, 9 December 1981, lot 107; Amsterdam, P. de Boer, 1982; see
photo on file at the RKD, and Segal 1991, no. 41, illus. [End]

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Joris Son | Stilleben med frukter och kokta kräftor | Nationalmuseum