(Burgsteinfurt 1597/98–1660 Haarlem)
A Vanitas still life,
indistinctly inscribed in the lower right hand corner,
oil on panel, 38.5 x 68 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Belgium (until 2011, as H. van Steenwijck)

The present painting is an early and high-quality version by Pieter Claesz. with studio assistance, from circa 1629 (with Pieter de Boer, Amsterdam, 1931 and 1952, once attributed to Clara Peeters, see N. R. A. Vroom, A Modest Message, Schiedam 1980, vol. 1, figs. 17 and 136 and vol. 2, nos. 42 and 505). A variant of this composition with an oil lamp instead of the skull was offered at Sotheby’s, London, on 8 July 2015 as lot 45.

The present painting comes with a certificate by Martina Brunner-Bulst (March 2012, in photocopy). She believes that specifically the oil lamp and the skull were executed by Pieter Claesz. himself.

Martina Brunner-Bulst writes: “In the left part of the composition, which is in better condition, particularly the front of the skull, the earthenware oil lamp, the clock, and the key with its elaborate goldwork betray a masterful hand when it comes to the painterly treatment of surface textures and the handling of light in which one can readily identify that of Pieter Claesz. In their painterly quality, these objects match those in related compositions from the period around 1628, such as the small vanitas still life in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, or the vanitas still life with a glass ball and a violin in the Germanisches Nationalmuseums, Nuremberg, both of which date from 1628. Pieter Claesz. used a very similar clock model much later for a vanitas still life painted in 1645 […].” On the question of authorship, she points out: “Rather, for our vanitas still life we must assume that it is the work by a gifted student of this Haarlem-based master and was modelled on one of the latter’s own works under his direct supervision […].” As nothing is known about how the workshop of Pieter Claesz. was organised, Brunner-Bulst hypothetically refers to the painter’s son Nicolaes Berchem, who was born in 1620, in the context of the authorship of the present painting.