Lot 8: Jan Mortel (Leiden 1652-1719)

Peaches, apricots, grapes, oranges, blackberries, sheafs of corn and a pomegranate on a plinth with a sculpted relief, with butterflies, a snail and a ladybird, in a mountainous landscape
signed and dated 'JMortel Fec 1688.' ('JM' linked, lower right)
oil on panel
24 7/8 x 20 3/8 in. (63.2 x 51.8 cm.)

Amsterdam, Gallery de Boer; and Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, A Fruitful Past - A survey of the fruit still lifes of the northern and southern Netherlands from Brueghel till Van Gogh, 1983, no. 64.

S. Segal, in the catalogue of the exhibition, A Fruitful Past, Amsterdam, 1983, pp. 85-6, no. 64, and p. 132, illustrated.

Gratama collection, The Netherlands, and by descent to the present owner.

THE PROPERTY FROM A EUROPEAN COLLECTION

Jan Mortel was a pupil of Jan Porcellis van Delden, grandson of the well-known marine painter, and became a member of the guild in Leiden in 1675. Mortel seems to have spent his entire career in that city and was appointed official draughtsman to the University botanical garden in 1690 and painter in 1711. This beautifully preserved panel from 1688 reveals the influence of Jan Davidsz. de Heem who made a strong and lasting impression on Mortel's oeuvre. This can be evinced by the use of strong colour, theatrical lighting and the highly-polished level of detail in the rendition of the still life elements. However, the present work has a more naturalistic quality in the seemingly random arrangement of the fruit festoon and its placement in a landscape background. Despite Mortel's close ties to the University botanical garden, presumably giving him access to a multitude of different and exotic varieties of fruit and flowers, Mortel characteristically chose only to include familiar varieties in the present picture. Sam Segal (loc. cit.) alludes to the scene shown in the bas-relief, in which a satyr embraces a woman who carries a bunch of flowers, although the exact meaning remains unclear. Only one other picture from 1688 seems to be recorded; a large arched top flower still life in the Lakenhal, Leiden.

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