Lot 172: Albrecht Kauw I (Strasbourg 1616-1681 Bern)

Albrecht Kauw I (Strasbourg 1616-1681 Bern)
Apples in a wicker basket, with pears, grapes, cherries, a gherkin, lettuce, melon, dead birds and fish on a wooden table, with a rabbit, woodcocks, a pigeon and other birds hanging
signed 'Kauw' (lower left)
oil on canvas
36 7/8 x 57 5/8 in. (93.8 x 46.4 cm.)

with Sala Parés, Barcelona, between c. 1953 and 1955, as 'Felipe Ramirez'.

The Property of a Private European Collection

Albrecht Kauw was born in Strasbourg, but settled in Berne around 1640, where he remained for the rest of his life. He was a versatile and innovative artist and cartographer, whose landscapes and topographical views, some of which formed part of decorative schemes for civic buildings and châteaux in and around Berne, had a significant impact on the development of Swiss landscape painting. He also produced portraits, history and genre paintings, however, it was his still lifes that formed perhaps the most important and idiosyncratic part of his oeuvre.

This, hitherto unpublished work, is one of over twenty still lifes, that he painted from 1649 onwards (see G. Herzog, Albrecht Kauw (1616-1681) Der Berner Maler aus Strassburg, Berne, 1999, pp. 214-47, nos. 117-35). Kauw painted a number of these still lifes on a scale that at this time, was normally reserved for history painting. Little is known of Kauw's early training, although given his birth in Strasbourg it is likely that he was influenced by the nearby schools of Hanau, Cologne and Paris, as was his contemporary Sebastien Stoskopff. Certainly in his depiction of fruit in wicker baskets and on pewter plates, parallels can be found in the work of the Soreau family in Hanau and Frankfurt, Pieter Binoit in Cologne as well as among contemporary French painters such as Jacques Linard and Louise Moillon. Furthermore the scale of Kauw's work, the variety of produce that he depicts and his frequent inclusion of figures at the edges of the compositions would also seem to owe much to the kitchen still lifes of artists such as Joachim Beuckelaer and Frans Snyders. Yet Kauw's pictures differ from these antecedents in their ordered, almost schematic depiction of the various elements in the composition, often arranged in several tiers. Each object is also brightly lit against a black background, creating a dramatic illusionism that recalls the art of the great Spanish master, and early exponent of still-life painting, Juan Sanchez Cotán, and his many followers (indeed it is not surprising that the present work was previously attributed to Felipe Ramirez in the 1950s).

This picture, which is signed, is a major addition to the artist's oeuvre, probably dating from the 1660s. Kauw frequently reused particularly successful motifs and certain elements here can be seen in other of his works such as the rabbit hanging on the left, which is also found in Still life with a rabbit, ducks and other game birds, fruit, vegetables and a fish of 1677, in the Kunstmuseum, Berne (inv. no. 1632; G. Herzog, op. cit., no. 133) and in an earlier canvas of 1657 (ibid., no. 127). The motif of hanging gamebirds is also found in a number of canvases including Still life with a falcon and dead birds, of circa 1660-65 in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva (inv. no. CR 0375; ibid., no. 130), while a similar basket of fruit can be seen along with hanging birds, in a picture of circa 1660, whose whereabouts are unknown (ibid., no. 128).

The fact that several of his still lives depict only birds (as in the Geneva picture), or fruit and vegetables (as with Still life with a young woman sitting with a vase of flowers next to a table laden with fruit, vegetables and nuts, sold at Sotheby's, London, 10 July 2002, lot 22), or fish (as with Still life with a table laden with a salmon, cod, herring and other fish and shells, with a young woman, sold in these Rooms, 28 April 2006, lot 81), suggests that they were conceived as pendants, no doubt juxtaposing the elements; water (fish), air (birds) and earth (vegetables). The fact that the present picture incorporates all these elements in a single composition suggests that no such pendant was envisaged on this occasion.