Lot 109: Plums and grapes in a porcelain bowl, with slices of a pomegranate and grapes on a partially draped, wooden table

Jacob van Hulsdonck (Antwerp 1582-1647) Plums and grapes in a porcelain bowl, with slices of a pomegranate and grapes on a partially draped, wooden table signed 'HULSDONCK FE' (centre left, on the edge of the table) oil on panel, stamped on the reverse with the hands of the city of Antwerp 16 7/8 x 22¼ in. (42.8 x 56.5 cm.)

42.8 x 56.5 cm.

Dr. G Decapmaker, Brussels; his sale (†), Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 11-12 May 1966, lot 27. with Brod Gallery, London, 1967.

The rarity of works by Jacob van Hulsdonck is a testament to his meticulous attention to detail, which naturally limited his output to approximately one hundred paintings in a career spanning over forty years. Whilst born in Antwerp, van Hulsdonck spent his early life in Middelburg, the southwestern Dutch town where Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder and his circle were the leading exponents of still-life painting in Holland. Although he would have most likely been influenced by Bosschaert, a close study of his oeuvre does not suggest that van Hulsdonck trained in his studio. By 1608, he had returned to Antwerp to become a master painter in his own right in the Guild of Saint Luke. Whilst it is difficult to establish a chronology for an oeuvre that contains only one known dated picture, the low vantage point of this composition suggests it is a rare example of van Hulsdonck’s later period when considered alongside the greater part of his work. The changes in perspective reveal a deeper and more realistic sense of three-dimensional space, a quality shared with fellow Antwerp painter Frans Snyders. Such devices latterly came to include a preference for half-clad tables, as can be seen here with the green-grey cloth, in order to bring more attention to the artist’s masterful rendering of the table’s woodgrain. Though not as preoccupied with the vanitas symbolism so popular with his contemporaries, we see delicate additions of his favourite motifs in the bluebottle fly - regarded as a symbol of the transience of life - and masterfully painted water droplets that drip from the dewy foliage to the edge of the table, drawing attention to the artist’s nearby signature. In restraining from more conventional symbolism, he pays greater attention to the detailed rendering of textures and gradiations of colour offered as delights to the senses; van Hulsdonck’s scene lives in a moment where the fruit is ripe, the foliage moist and the bluebottle poised. We are grateful to Fred Meijer of the RKD, The Hague, for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph.