Sebastian STOSKOPFF (Strasbourg 1597 - Idstein... Lot 252

Sebastian STOSKOPFF (Strasbourg 1597 - Idstein 1657) "Nuts, grapes and Römer on an entablature oil on canvas signed and dated lower left: "Stos kopf / 1644" 35 x 33 cm. Exhibition label on the back. Expert : Cabinet TURQUIN, Paris Exhibitions : - "Natures mortes Françaises du XVIIème siècle à nos jours", Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1951, n°193 - Here are fruits, flowers, leaves and branches", Paris, Galerie Bernheim jeune, 1957, n°62 - La nature morte et son inspiration", Paris, Galerie André Weil, Paris, 1960, n°50 - Stilleben in Europa", Munster and Baden, Westphälisches Landesmuseum für kunst und kulturgeschichte and Kunsthalle, 1979-1980, n°105 - Sébastiaen Stoskopff 1597-1657, a master of the still life", Strasbourg, Aachen, Musée de l'oeuvre Notre Dame l'oeuvre Notre Dame, Suermondt Ludwig Museum, 1997, p. 194, n° 35, reproduced in color Provenance: - Jean Jacques Lebel Collection; - Auction sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot (Piasa), December 17, 2004, n° 64, reproduced in color Bibliography: - H. Haug, " Trois peintres Strasbourgeois de Natures Mortes ", Revue des Arts, 1959, pp. 144-145, reproduced fig. 4 - H. Haug, "Sébastiaen Stoskopff", L'?il, n° 76, 1961, p. 33, reproduced fig. 17 - M. Faré, La nature morte en France, Geneva, 1962, vol. I, p. 104, vol. II n° 120, reproduced - M. Faré, Le Grand siècle de la Nature morte en France, le XVIIème siècle, Fribourg, 1974, p. 31 reproduced - C. Sterling, La nature morte de l'Antiquité à nos jours, Paris, 1985, p. 74 - C. Wright, The French painters of the seventeenth century, Boston, 1985, p. 262 - B. Hahn-Woernle, Sebastiaen Stoskopff, Stuttgart, 1996, pp. 244-245, n° 59 reproduced Sebastiaen Stoskopff is a still life painter and was for some time the master of Joachim von Sandrart (1606-1688), who wrote a short biography of him at the end of the 17th century. Born into a Strasbourg family of Protestant origin, Stoskopff was first a pupil of the engraver and draughtsman Friedrich Brentel (1561-1972). and draughtsman Friedrich Brentel (1580-1651), whose influence is clearly visible in some of the artist's compositions in which engraving is combined with painting. He then received training in the studio of in the studio of Daniel Soreau, a painter of history, portraits, still lifes and architect (active in Hanau in 1586-1619). He was fluent in several languages and traveled extensively throughout his life. In 1622, he left Germany for France and Paris, where he settled until 1640, interspersing his stay with a Venetian interlude in 1629, and a visit to Troyes in 1633 to the home of Baron Guichard de Vouldy, physician to the king and secretary of the Treasury, which allowed him to rub shoulders with different artistic circles before creating a more personal style. He was inspired by the work of artists such as Lucas van Valckenborch or Georg Flegel, borrowing motifs, arrangements of fruit and vegetables, which he isolated, thus giving them a pictorial value of their own. Around 1640 - 1641, he returned to his native region, invited by Count Johannes of Nassau-Idestein to paint in his home. He died in Idstein in 1657, his death remaining somewhat mysterious and unexplained. Today, there are about sixty still lifes by Stoskopff, twenty-six of which are signed and only about ten of which are dated. The painting we are presenting is dated 1644, which corresponds to the end of Stoskopff's career, when he returned to his native Strasbourg. The objects are carefully arranged on a table and rendered in detail, offering the viewer a clear reading. The painter gives equal attention to each element, in a symmetrical and balanced composition. He excels in the rendering of materials, whether it is the evanescent Roemer glass, the translucent grapes, the velvety peach, the veined walnut kernel, or the golden Alsatian bread roll. Through his mastery of the play of light, he gives life to these inanimate things. He transfigures the simplest objects and raises this still life to the rank of vanity