Lot 962 | Trompe-l'oeil of a Vanitas Still Life with Clock and Skull on a Shelf on a Wall, Next to it Painting Utensils

GIJSBRECHTS, FRANCISCUS
1649 Antwerp - ca. 1677

Title: Trompe-l'oeil of a Vanitas Still Life with Clock and Skull on a Shelf on a Wall, Next to it Painting Utensils.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Mounting: Relined.
Measurement: 143 x 99cm.
Notation: Signed faintly bottom left on the note: F. Gijsbregt.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Exhibitions:
"Mémoires du futur. La collection Olbricht". La Maison Rouge, Paris, 2011/2012;
"Lebenslust & Totentanz", Kunsthalle Krems, 2010.

Provenance:
Collection Jacques Heinrich Bassenge Sr., Dresden 1812-1840;
Inherited by Jacques Heinrich Bassenge Jr., Dresden 1840-1893;
Inherited by Friedrike Bassenge, Dresden 1893-1901;
Inherited by Johanna Held, Dresden 1901-1923;
Auction Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 07.05.2008, Lot 37;
Rafael Valls, London 2009;
Collection Prof. Dr. Thomas Olbricht, Essen, acquired 2010.

The present painting is documented in the database of the RKD, The Hague, under the ill. no. 205299.

Franciscus Gysbrechts was probably the son of the painter Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts. It is certain that he was baptised in Antwerp in 1649 and that he studied under the older artist of the same name, worked closely with him and probably also accompanied him on journeys to the Danish court. Both Gysbrechts were famous for their extremely refined trompe l'oeil paintings.
The present painting, signed by Franciscus Gysbrechts, shakes the viewer's secure point of view in many ways. On the first level, it depicts a wooden wall in the studio: A shelf attached to a wooden wall with painting utensils lying on it leads the viewer into the artist's working space. The semicircular upper end of the painting with the painted blue curtain was added later. On the shelf is a Vanitas still life lavishly staffed with a wide variety of elements, which in turn has trompe-l'oeil qualities: the objects in a stone niche are painted so vividly that they seem to project not only into the pictorial space of the (painted) studio, but also into that of the real viewer. Similar colours and similar materials in the different picture levels intertwine them in a sophisticated way. A play on being and appearance. This in turn leads to the level of content of the picture painted in the painting. Multiple objects demonstrate that the world of the senses and earthly wealth is fleeting and vain. Time, transience and death are to be brought to the viewer's mind, whereby the crown of corn stalks worn by the skull points to the Eucharist and the eternal life that is actually to be striven for.
With the "total painting", Franciscus Gysbrechts thus also questions the ephemeral art of painting itself with all its sophistication, and challenges the viewer to permanently question his real and spiritual standpoints.