Lot 3048. Sebastian Stoskopff (Strasbourg 1597–1657 Idstein), Still life with a bentwood box, citrus fruit and flowers. Oil on canvas, 41.5 × 57.5 cm. Sold for CHF 93 750 (Est. CHF 30 000 / 50 000) © Koller

Certificate: Dr Birgit Hahn-Woernle, 27 April 2016.

Provenance: - Auction Hampel Fine Art, Munich, 28 March 2019, lot 1096.

- European private collection.

Note: This painting is a typical work by Sebastian Stoskopff, whose restrained, quiet and precise compositions have a modern and timeless effect. Born in Strasbourg in 1597, the painter was a pupil of Daniel Soreau (1554–1619) in Hanau between 1615 and 1619, before taking over the workshop after his death (see Gerhard Bott: 'Sebastian Stoskopffs Lehrzeit in Hanau am Main 1615–1621', in: Exh. cat. Sebastian Stoskopff 1597–1657. Ein Meister des Stillebens, Strasbourg/Aachen 1997, pp. 60–75).

The artist is documented in Paris and Venice in the 1620s and 1630s, as well as in Troyes in 1633. From 1640 he was again active in his native Strasbourg and towards the end of his life served as court painter to the Protestant Count Johann of Nassau-Idstein (1603–1677). His virtuosity is particularly evident in the differentiated rendering of a wide variety of surfaces, such as fruit skins or the bentwood box. According to Dr Birgit Hahn-Woernle, who examined the painting in the original, the present work was created circa 1630, when the artist was staying in Paris.

During his Paris years, Stoskopff enjoyed considerable esteem. Works by his hand are recorded in the inventories of at least six Parisian collectors from the upper social classes (see Birgit Hahn-Woernle: Sebastian Stoskopff, Berlin 1996, p. 16). Several paintings from this period survive with similarly reduced compositions in which a bentwood box appears as the central motif, including Spanschachtel und Nautilus (German private collection) and Schrankbild mit Trinkgeschirr und Spanschachteln (Paris private collection) (see Birgit Hahn-Woernle, ibid., p. 152, cat. no. 23, and p. 156, cat. no. 25).

Koller, Old Master Paintings, 18. September 2026