Hans van Sant
Still Life with a Rummer, an Overturned Silver Cup, a Lemon, Olives, Nuts and a Knife
Oil on panel. 40 x 58.5 cm.
Signed centre right: HANSV (conjoined) SANT 1632.
Hans van Sant is an almost mysterious painter for whom hardly any archival evidence has been found so far. A. v. d. Willigen and F. Meijer (op. cit.) regard it as certain that he was active in Haarlem and outline his oeuvre on the basis of the present painting and another banketje, both of which are signed. NRA Vroom (op. cit., vol. 1, p. 202) published the piece in his standard work on monochrome banketjes and stated: "This painting shows a characteristic self-consciousness of such a high quality that the temptation to attribute it to a better-known master can scarcely be resisted".
Certificate
Ellen Bernt, Munich, 26.4.1981.
Provenance
S. Nijstad Oude Kunst BV Gallery, The Hague, 1980 - Auctioned by Koller, Zurich, 25-26.5.1984, lot 5057 - South German private collection.
Literature
N(icolaas) R(udolph) A(lexander) Vroom: A modest message as intimated by the painters of the “Monochrome banketje”, 2 vols., Schiedam 1980, vol. 1, p. 202, no. 554, col. ill. p. 203, vol. 2, p. 110. - Adriaan van der Willigen & Fred G. Meijer: A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 176.