Lot 14. Cornelis de Heem (Leiden 1631 - 1695 Antwerpt), A vanitas still life with a skull and an écorché, on a draped table, oil on canvas, 60 by 78 cm.; 23 5/8  by 30 3/4  in. Estimate 150,000 — 200,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

Provenance: In the collection of the present owner’s family since before the Second World War.

Notes: This recently discovered vanitas still life was painted by Cornelis de Heem, son of Jan Davidsz., in the late 1650s and is one of the more experimental works in his substantial œuvre. De Heem is best known for his flower and fruit pieces, and works on a vanitas theme by him are highly unusual. He does however here display an extraordinary expertise in the depiction of  the chosen objects, with the intricacies of the underneath of the skull and the ecorché figure particularly well observed.  

There can be few still lifes featuring so many and such overt references to the theme of vanitas. This painting is packed with reminders of the brevity and fragility of human life and existence, most of them obvious in their meaning, like the ecorchéfigure, the skull, the burning length of rope and the stopped pocket watch. Every object is there to reference the theme in some way, including the fragile wine glass, the flowers in bloom – soon to droop and die – and the burned out candle. The theme itself was popular with prospective buyers for its sermonising tone, but also with artists for the wide variety of surfaces and textures that it allowed them to depict.

We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer of the R.K.D., The Hague, for endorsing the attribution based on photographs. Dr Meijer considers this an exciting rediscovery and dates it relatively early, circa 1659. Comparable foliage and the same porcelain bowl, likewise positioned at an angle, appear in a painting of similar date sold New York, Christie's, 15 April 2008, lot 340. Looking back a little further, there are strong echoes of De Heem's painting dated 1651 in an American private collection.1 The compositions share very similar pyramidal designs, with the edge of the same table protruding from under a drape lower left, the composition of objects climbing steeply to the right to a large vine leaf at the apex. Both these paintings, and indeed much of De Heem's work from the 1650s, are lit from a source high up to the left creating long diagonal shadows. Interestingly, the artist seems to have painted out an orange jut beneath the skull that must have been defying gravity over the edge of the ledge. He did however leave the blossom in place. 

1. See RKD illustration number 0000112791.

Sotheby's. Old Masters Evening Sale, London,  06 Jul 2016, 07:00 PM