Lot 1081 Dα

Like his father Jan van Kessel the Elder, Jan the younger also specialised in still lifes. Researchers have only been able to differentiate the works of the two artists with certainty within the last few years. This development was primarily the achievement of Klaus Ertz, who published his catalogue raisonné of both artists in 2012. Considering the large amount unordered material before the publication, it is hardly surprising that Ertz still ascribed these two paintings to Jan the Elder in his expertise of 2006. He was first able to securely attribute the works to the younger artist after examining all of both painters' surviving works together, and has listed both pieces as the work of Jan van Kessel the Younger in the catalogue raisonné.

Jan van Kessel the Younger was born in Antwerp in 1654, but is documented as a court portrait painter in Madrid as of 1679, where he died in 1708. Two of his finest works are the still life with fruit, flowers, and animals housed in the Doria Pamphilj gallery in Rome, and a further piece with identical motifs in the Museum of Budapest. The two present works, representing the fruits of the earth and sea respectively, were separated in the course of their history.