Lot 50: Grapes on a blue and white dish, and flowers in a roemer, with cherries, hazelnuts and blackberries strewn on a ledge

Isaak Soreau (active Hanau 1620-1638) Grapes on a blue and white dish, and flowers in a roemer, with cherries, hazelnuts and blackberries strewn on a ledge oil on copper 12½ x 16 in. (31.8 x 40.6 cm.)

with Hallsborough Gallery, London, 1957.

PROPERTY FROM A EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION (lots 50, 51, 67, 71, 72 and 83)


Isaak Soreau was the son and pupil of Daniel Soreau, an artist and merchant who had emigrated from Tournai to Frankfurt by 1586. Isaak is recorded in Hanau until 1626, after which he is thought to have spent time in Antwerp, as his work shows such a strong relationship with the paintings of Jacob van Hulsdonck. The existence of only two dated works by the artist (1638 and 1645; both private collection) have made it very difficult to establish a chronology for his oeuvre.

This beautiful example is characteristic in revealing the influence of both Hulsdonck and Georg Flegel, the leading still-life painter in Frankfurt. The elevated viewpoint, the meticulous rendition of detail and the combination of two main elements, in this case a fruit platter with a flower vase, are all devices that recur consistently in his output. Soreau often rearranged the same objects in new schemes and made variants of his more successful compositions. Bott records two variants of this, both on panel, with differences in the detail and whose compositions are less compact (Darmstadt, Landesmuseum, and private collection; see Bott, op. cit., pp. 180-1, nos. WV.IS.26 and WV.IS.28).