(Delft 1612 - after 1664 probably in Delft)
Hunting still life with shot wildfowl and figural staffage,
monogrammed: HS,
oil on canvas, 89.5 x 109.2 cm, framed

Provenance:
Wilhelm Gumprecht Collection, Berlin;
sale P. Cassirer and H. Helbing, Berlin, 21 March 1918, lot 45;
sale Christie’s, London, 31 October 1980, lot 13;
Private collection, France

Literature:
E. Gemar-Koeltzsch, Holländische Stilllebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert, vol. 3, Lingen, 1995, p. 958, no. 376/11 (without ill.)

We are grateful to Fred Meijer for his kind assistance in cataloguing the present painting, which dates from the mid-1640s.

Erika Gemar-Koeltzsch writes about Steenwijck: ‘In Harmen van Steenwyck’s paintings, cool and bright hues of grey and ochre prevail. The light, which mostly enters from the upper left, causes these neutral tones to glow, whereas the few chromatic colours remain unperturbed in their natural clarity. Van Steenwyck achieves the clear and simultaneously vibrant glow of objects that is so typical of his art by finely brushed pastel tones and reflections against the cool, grey ground of the canvas. In this way, the painter succeeds in lending ordinary objects of everyday life a lasting radiance, one that even transforms a kitchen table into a precious visual experience. The illumination of his still lifes, bundled in a single ray of light, defines light as something magic or even supernatural, even lending sacral traits to some of his vanitas still lifes. This impression is reversed by the chromatic materiality of only a small number of objects. It is this complex approach that is responsible for the magic emanating from Harmen van Steenwyck’s paintings.’