Lot 531: Peter Binoit (Cologne 1590/3-1632 Hanau)

Carnations in a roemer with a butterfly, a caterpillar and a stag beetle oil on panel 15 x 93/4 in. (38.1 x 24.8 cm.) PROVENANCE With Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, Tentoonstelling van Oude Meesters, 1961, no. 2, illustrated, acquired by Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. A-31). LITERATURE G. Bott, 'Stillebensmaler des 17 Jahrhunderts, Isaak Soreau-Peter Binoit', in Kunst in Hessen und Mittelrhein, 1962, p. 80, no. 15. Idem, Die Stillebenmaler Soreau, Binoit, Codino und Marrell in Hanau und Frankfurt 1600-1650, Hanau, 2001, p. 204, no. WV.B.25. NOTES The artist, one of the most important of the early German still life painters, was born in Cologne, the son of Jacques Binoit from Tournai. Apprenticed to Daniel Soreau in Hanau sometime after 1611, he trained in his studio alongside Sebastian Stoskopff and his master's twin sons, Peter and Isaac Soreau. He worked for the most part in Frankfurt during the 1620s until in 1627 - the year of his marriage to Daniel Soreau's niece - he returned permanently to Hanau, remaining there until his death. The stag beetle in the lower left of the composition recurs frequently in Binoit's oeuvre, for example in the two still lifes of 1613 in the Magyar Nemzeti M£zeum, Budapest, and the N rodn¡ Galerie, Prague. This picture can be compared with the still life sold in these Rooms, 21 April 1989, lot 51, or with the pair also sold in these Rooms, 13 December 2000, lot 9. Although undated, the present composition recurs in closely similar forms within four larger group still lifes, of which three are dated 1615, 1616 and 1618 (Bott, 2001, op. cit., pp. 202-3, nos. WV.B.21-4); it can therefore be dated contemporaneously with them as an early work by the artist probably painted shortly after leaving Soreau's studio.