Lot 54: Jan Mortel (Leiden c. 1650-1719)

Apricots, peaches, plums, a pomegranate, a watermelon, an orange, a pear and corn in a basket, with cherries, chestnuts, snails, a bee, a squirrel and a dragonfly with signature 'JD de Heem' (lower centre, on the basket) oil on canvas 263/4 x 33 1/8 in. (68 x 84 cm.) NOTES We are grateful to Mr. Fred Meijer of the RKD for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs. He believes the picture to be a late work datable to the last decade of the artist's activity and raises the possibility that the squirrel, like the signature, may be a later addition.