Jacob van HULSDONCK (Antwerp 1582- 1647) Still... Lot 12

Jacob van HULSDONCK (Antwerp 1582- 1647) Still life with a herring Oak panel, one board, reinforced (Antwerp hands and panneleur's mark on reverse) 50 x 64 cm Old restorations Provenance: Anonymous sale, Paris, Palais d'Orsay (Ader, Picard, Tajan), 28 March 1979, no. 174, reproduced in color (to Deschandol 150,000 fr); Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 March 1983, no. 63, reproduced in color (Jacob van Hulsdonck); Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 3 June 1987, no. 96, reproduced in color (Jacob van Hulsdonck). Bibliography: E. Greindl, Les Peintres Flamands de Nature Morte au XVIIe siècle, Brussels, 1983, no. 58, fig. 144 p.257 (Jacob Van Hulsdonck) Jacob van Hulsdonck trained in Middlebourg with Ambrosius Bosschaert and joined the Antwerp painters' guild in 1608. Today, he is known mainly for his still lifes of flowers and fruit baskets. However, the first part of his career was characterised more by depictions of lunches. This is the subject of our painting, another version of which is in the Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede (Panel, 48.5 x 64.5 cm, signed, 1615). The two paintings are very similar: the white tablecloth still bears the marks of ironing and shows the edge of an oak table. A glass of beer, a herring on a red glazed plate, cheese and pigs' feet in a pewter dish make up the lunch. On the left, the porcelain plate containing the butter evokes the composition in the Cleveland Museum of Art (1615-1620), while recalling the lively Dutch trade with the Chinese empire. Finally, the austerity of the background and the diffuse lighting suspend the meal in the particular eternity of the still life.