STILL LIFE

Artwork: Still Life of Fruit

Artist: David de Heem

Created: c. 1670

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 28 x 23 cm

Location: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK

“On a stone still before a niche lie grapes, apricots, cherries, blackberries,, and a peach devoured by ants, with a cabbage-white butterfly and a bumblebee. This rich visual composition combines an elegant harmony of color with hyper-accurate renderings of objects, very much in keeping with the Dutch Masters, including the artist’s most famous grandfather Jan Davidsz de Heem (1606-84) — one of the greatest painters of still life in the Netherlands.

This painting is signed on the edge on the still on left: “D.De Heem”. The form of the signature recalls the large letters with which David de Heem’s (c. 1663-1701) father — Cornelis de Heem — signed his name.

A letter “J” would be added on some paintings to give the impression that the painting was by Jan Davidsz.

This painting has been attributed to the grandfather, probably thanks to clerical confusion soon after the painting’s completion. It is likely to have been begun by Jan Davidsz, but was almost certainly completed by his grandson, using his grandfather’s style as a model and his barley-begun canvas as a foundation.

The work must have been painted early in De Heem’s career but is difficult to date because it is not known when he died and he did not date any of his known paintings. But it is known that De Heem was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and that he moved latter to Holland and was married in the Hague in 1690.

His lineage is known but not the date of his death.

Remarkably also, all known works by him are still life paintings of fruit and flowers.” JH

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