(Nijmegen circa 1610–1677 Delft)
A still life with a lute, a berkemeier goblet and a knocked-over Jan Steen jug,
signed and dated lower right: W: ode kerck ft. 1642,
oil on panel, 79 x 62 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection Goeck, Berlin;
his sale, Lempertz, Cologne, 1893;
sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 17th September 1963, lot 66;
with Douwes Gallery, Amsterdam and London 1968;
with Frederick Mont, New York;
with Herman Shickman, New York and London;
sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 23rd January 2003, lot 46

Literature:
A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, II, Leipzig 1906–11, p. 250;
L. J. Bol, Holländische Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts nahe den großen Meistern: Landschaften und Stillleben, Braunschweig 1969, pp. 84/85, ill.;
W. Bernt, Die niederländischen Maler und Zeichner des 17. Jahrhunderts, vol. II, Munich 1980, p. 57;
N. R. A. Vroom, A Modest Message as Intimated by the Painters of the ‘Monochrome Banketje’, Schiedam and Nuremberg 1980–99, vol. II, no. 498, p. 98, ill.;
C. Grimm, Stillleben, Die Niederländischen und Deutschen Meister, Stuttgart and Zurich 1988, p. 137, ill.;
E. Gemar-Koeltzsch, Holländische Stilllebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert, Lingen 1995, III, pp. 751/52, ill.;
A. van der Willigen and F. G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oil 1525–1725, Leiden 2003, p. 153

Willem van Odekercken, a versatile painter based in Delft, was entrusted with numerous public commissions. For private patrons he painted genre scenes, church interiors, and still lifes. The present painting is the only known still life by the hand of Van Odekercken, which in Lexikon der Holländischen Stilllebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert is described as follows: “Van Odekercken’s banquet still life from 1642, which in terms of motif depends on a painting by Gerret Heda (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) from the same period, particularly exhibits the artist’s highly personal and extremely picturesque treatment of light and shadow, in which light and dark passages interact in a constantly alternating dialogue. This handling of contrasts results in a certain restlessness that is only balanced in the upper and lower zones, with their expanses of tonal surfaces. This approach to light and shadow, which is aimed at creating a vibrant appeal, goes hand in hand with Van Odekercken’s intention to display his objects in both their dynamism and monumentality. Accordingly, the painter describes his objects in strong spatial foreshortening and from a low vantage point. Moreover, the way in which Van Odekercken has combined the genre of banquet still life with the motif of a musical instrument is extraordinary. As Bol emphasizes, this unusual amalgamation is unique among banquet still lifes.”

The present painting is registered in the RKD database under number 113246.