Willem van Aelst
Still Life with two Peaches and Grapes on a Pewter Plate with a Dragonfly on a Marble Slab
Oil on canvas (relined). 33 x 28 cm.
Signed and dated lower right: Aelst. 1664..
Trained as an artist by his uncle Evert van Aelst (1602-1657) in Delft, Willem decided to specialize in still lifes. In this work he depicts a pewter plate with a bunch of grapes and its foliage alongside two slightly bluish tinted peaches together with a dragonfly and a fly against a dark background. Van Aelst's works are characterised by a luminous painting style with a cool, silvery colour palette and an effective use of light. His most talented pupils included Rachel Ruysch, Maria van Oosterwyck and Ernst Stuven. Van Aelst's masterpieces can be found in internationally renowned collections such as the Rijksmuseum, the J. P. Getty Museum, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Ashmoleon Museum and the Louvre.
Provenance
Whitfield Fine Art dealers, London. Sold during TEFAF Maastricht in 2005. - Scandinavian private collection.
Literature
Paul, Tanya: 'Beschildert met een Glans' - Willem van Aelst and artistic self-consciousness in seventeenth-century Dutch still life painting, Diploma-thesis, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (VA) 2008, p. 284, cat. nr. 64 (there erroneously dated to 1665).