Lot 36: Mussels in pewter and earthenware plates with an upturned 'Roemer', on a wooden table

Abraham van Beyeren (The Hague 1620-1690 Overschie)
Mussels in pewter and earthenware plates with an upturned 'Roemer', on a wooden table
oil on panel
34.5 x 46.1 cm.

Amsterdam, Jacques Goudstikker Gallery, Het Stilleven , 18 February-26 March 1933, no. 270, as S. van Ruysdael.
The Hague, Kunsthandel G.J. Nieuwenhuizen Segaar; The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Oude Kunst , 20 October-17 November 1934, no. 35, as S. van Ruysdael.
Amsterdam, Jacques Goudstikker Gallery, Catalogus der tentoonstelling van werken van Salomon van Ruysdael , 1936, no. 35, as S. van Ruysdael.
Eindhoven, Galerie Zonnewijzer; Bolsward, Facetten van de 17de centuryse Nederlandse schilderkunst , 3 April-2 June 1970, as S. van Ruysdael.
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Een stuckie stilleggend goet , 16 November 1985-5 January 1986.
Amsterdam, Museum Amstelkring, on loan since 1956.

Geheimrat J. Cremer, Dortmund, 1914.
with Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, by 1931.
Looted by the Nazi authorities, July 1940.
Recovered by the Allies, 1945.
in the custody of the Dutch Government.
Restituted in February 2006 to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker.

Christie’s charges a premium to the buyer on the Hammer Price of each lot sold at the following rates: 29.75% of the Hammer Price of each lot up to and including €5,000, plus 23.8% of the Hammer Price between €5,001 and €400,000, plus 14.28% of any amount in excess of €400,000. Buyer’s premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.
We are grateful to Mr. Fred Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague for confirming the attribution after inspection of the original (verbal communication, 18 September, 2007). A similar composition (in reverse) by van Beyeren is in the Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna.

Related by marriage to the fish painter Pieter de Putter (c. 1600-1659), Van Beyeren was also best known for that genre, in which he may plausibly be regarded as pre-eminent in his generation. As here, Van Beyeren normally painted fish or shell-fish on a table, usually in a rustic interior, depicted in naturalistic brown and grey shades, enlivened with the white flesh tones and with rich contrasts of light and shade. He went on to paint lavish banquet still lifes in the 1650s and 1660s.