Cornelis de Heem

Acquired by a private collection, England, by 1952;

Thence by descent until anonymously sold ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Replica Shoes 's, 12 December 1979, lot 60;

With Richard Green, London, 1979;

Private collection, Europe;

With Richard Green, London;

From whom acquired in December 1999.

Signed and dated 1660, this painting is a characteristic example of Cornelis de Heem’s celebrated festoon compositions. A profusion of roses, peaches, apricots, grapes and figs is suspended by two brilliant blue ribbons against a dark background, their forms beautifully observed and rendered with crisp precision. Such floral arrangements had been established in Antwerp by figures such as Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) and further developed by Daniel Seghers (1590–1661), but Cornelis de Heem often dispensed with a central devotional image, transforming the motif into a purely decorative celebration of nature’s abundance. 

Alongside his celebrated father Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606–84), Cornelis was among the most accomplished still-life painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Born in Leiden in 1631, he moved with his family to Antwerp in 1636 and was admitted to the Guild of St Luke in 1660, the same year this painting was executed. Throughout his career he travelled across the northern and southern Netherlands, working in Utrecht, The Hague, and ultimately Antwerp, where he died in 1695.