Lot 1068 | Fruit Still Life

SOREAU, ISAAK
Hanau 1604 - nach 1645


Title: Fruit Still Life.
On a tabletop a wicker basket filled with apricots, cherries, plums, radish and asparagus.
Technique: Oil on wood.
Mounting: Parquetted.
Measurement: 41 x 52cm.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Literature:
G. Bott: Ein Stück von allerlei Blumenwerk, ein Stück von Früchten, zwei Stück auf Tuch mit Hecht: die Stillebenmaler Soreau, Binoit, Codino and Marrell in Hanau and Frankfurt 1600 - 1650. Hanau 2001, p. 97f, no. WV.IS.48 with ill.

Fred G. Meijer, RKD The Hague, confirms in a letter to the owners dated 28.06.2017 that he has examined the painting several times in the original and has no doubts about the attribution.

Exhibitions:
"Die Magie der Dinge. Stilllebenmalerei 1500 - 1800" Exhib. Städel Museum Frankfurt/Main / Kunstmusuem Basel 20.03.-17.08.2008 / 05.09.2008-04.01.2009. In cat. no. 30 with ill.;
"Sinn und Sinnlichkeit. Das Flämische Stillleben 1550 - 1680" Exhib. Kulturstiftung Ruhr-Essen, Villa Hügel 01.09.-08.12.2002, in cat. no. 84a.

Provenance:
Auction Sotheby's, London, 08.07.1992, lot 15 as Jakob van Hulsdonck:
Galerie Edel, London, exhibited in Maastricht, TEFAF 1993 as Isaac Soreau;
Auction Dorotheum Vienna, 02.10.2002, lot 221 as Isaac Soreau;
Private ownership, Germany.

Isaak Soreau was born in the city of Hanau, which his father, a merchant and artistic multi-talent who emigrated to Frankfurt from the Flemish Netherlands, had designed as an urban planner. In Frankfurt his father, Daniel Soreau, who was also a painter and architect, had met many Dutch and Flemish merchants and also artists who had fled the reprisals of the Spanish occupation of their homeland. The Messestadt am Main received fresh, enriching input, not only in the arts, from the new Dutch citizens.
It can be assumed that Isaak Soreau went to Antwerp, at least temporarily, after his first education in painting by his father and his pupil Peter Binoit (active 1620-1632), where he worked for Jacob von Hulsdonck (1582-1647). The stylistic similarities with the works of the older artist are so obvious that a separation of the two styles is a constant concern in art history. The wicker basket filled with fruit and vegetables is also a recurring motif in the work of the still life painter Jakob von Hulsdonck.
In literature the work presented here is assumed to have been painted rather early, as it is closely related to one of the few signed and dated paintings by the painter from 1628. Another fruit basket in the Kunstmuseum Schwerin also belongs to this period. It is therefore possible that it was created under the direct influence of van Hulsdonck.
It is a still life, which - unlike other examples of this genre - does not radiate any transience. All the fruit and vegetables, some of them arranged somewhat carelessly, are presented in the basket and on the table, seem freshly picked and crisp. No insects participate in the imminent spoilage of the harvest. This harvest is also supra-seasonal: spring (asparagus), summer (peaches and cherries) and autumn (pears and plums) combine in one basket, as do the various flavours. Sweet peaches, pears and plums meet spicy radish, slightly bitter asparagus and the sour citrus fruit that lies on the tabletop next to the basket.
Illuminated brightly, the appetising, colourful fruits and white vegetables shine against the monochrome grey background and the restrained brown colouring of the table top and basket. The whole colour spectrum of nature is spread out. The strong light is reflected on the plump cherries, but especially on the leaves of the twigs and radish, which thus acquire an almost metallic-looking surface. At the front, at the edge of the table top, there are some drops of water, another drop runs down the edge of the table. The light is also refracted in them and they intensify the fresh impression of the still very young harvest.
Since their detachment from large pictorial contexts, still lifes have been particularly pleasing to the viewer. No prior iconographic knowledge is required to recognise and enjoy the things of one's own reality.
In this small basket all the abundance and diversity of nature is united. Soreau invites with this early "fruit and vegetable basket" to a rich feast for the eyes.