Lot 61: - Cornelis Kruys , Place unknown 1619/20 - 1654 Schiedam still life with a pewter flagon together with a glass of beer, a crab, a blue-and-white dish and a roemer on pewter dishes, together with a knife, hazelnuts, a tulip and bunches of grapes on a

signed with monogram on the knife lower left: C.X. oil on panel

measurements note 58 by 84 cm.; 22 3/4 by 33 in.

Delft, Prinsenhof Museum, 21e oude Kunst- en Antiekbeurs, 1969;
Dortmund, Lohr am Main Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Glück und Glas: Zur Kulturdeschichte des Spessartglases, 1984, no. 22.

N.R.A. Vroom, A Modest Message as Intimated by the Painters of the 'Monochrome Banketje', Schiedam 1980, vol. I, p. 146, reproduced colour plate 189, vol.II, p. 46, no. 206.

Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Paul Brandt, 28 November 1961;
With Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, 1989;
From whom acquired by the present owner.

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTION
This is a particularly fine example of the work of Cornelis Kruys, who was trained in Haarlem in the 1640s, where he became a member of the Painters' Guild in 1644, and in it the strong influence of Pieter Claesz. can be readily discerned. The handling is confident and the design notably well balanced, without the profusion of objects that characterises many of his monochrome banketje. The rather squat flagon must have belonged to the painter, for it anchors a good many of his compositions of this period, often, as here, combined with pewter dishes and half-filled glass vessels reflecting the light. Very comparable works, also including the motif of the crab, were sold London, Christie's, 8 July 1983, lot 26, and Paris, Ader Tajan, 12 June 1995, lot 105. After a brief period in Haarlem, Kruys moved to Leiden, where he joined the Painters' Guild in 1649, before finally settling in Schiedam, where he died.