(Antwerp 1578–1623)
(Antwerp 1581–1642)
A painter in his workshop,
signed lower left: iF,
oil on panel, 49.5 x 70 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, France, until 2018;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Ursula Härting, who confirmed the present painting as an autograph work by the brothers Hieronymus Francken II and Frans Francken II. A written certificate (March 2019) is available.

Ursula Härting writes: ‘This is probably the painter’s own collection (it is uncertain if it is Frans II’s workshop), with him appearing on the right-hand side, in his workshop. Looking into a tall, panelled room with paintings on the walls, the spectator is offered a glimpse of the artist’s studio. The artist, standing in front of his easel with his palette, is engaged in a discussion with two visitors. On the table at the front, the painter of the present picture has exhibited a number of objects: his own works, examples used for instruction, and his own proud possessions, including the picture Peasants at the Hearth – works of art and objects considered rare and precious at the time. The present version and a Cabinet Painting and Painter’s Studio dated 1604 mark the beginning of this new type of picture developed by Frans II and Hieronymus II, to which both brothers contributed. Several very early Table Still Lives with Herring showing a very similar layout of table, wall, and aperture have been attributed to Hieronymus. Continuing with this type of composition, Hieronymus seems to have had a larger share in the early invention of this new genre of cabinet painting. Frans II, for his part, painted various collectibles to complement the basic structure of table, wall, and studio: the mirror on the table reflecting what is called a ‘Rembrandt’s shell’ on the small chest, the portrait of a monk, the drawing on the wall, with a seahorse mounted above. The still life of flowers in a blue and white earthenware vase follows similar bouquets in paintings by Frans II, with the motif of two pink roses and a white one just beside the rim and a full yellow anemone next to them: the cabinet painting with ânes iconoclastes from 1619 and the Gallery Interior of Sebastiaen Leerse by Frans II. In the early seventeenth century, Frans II cooperated with the flower painter Andries Daniels. Daniels may have painted the still life in the picture. The present painting could have preceded the work dating from 1604 as a first tentative study.’