Attributed to Isaak Soreau - A Still Life of Apricots and Grapes

Attributed to Isaak Soreau
Hanau, 1604 - Frankfurt am Main, after 1645

A Still Life of Apricots and Grapes in a 'Wan-li' porcelain Bowl

Oil on panel, the reverse stamped with the mark of the ‘Master with the Star’ and with remains of the stamp of the Antwerp Panel Makers Guild
H. 40,5 cm. W. 53 cm.

PROVENANCE
Anonymous sale; Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
With Gallery A. van der Meer, November 1963, as nr.8;
Anonymous sale, Philips, London, United Kingdom, 4 July 1989, lot 33;
Anonymous sale, Ader-Picard-Tajan, Hotel George V, Paris, France, 9 April 1990, as lot nr. 44, as by Jacob van Hulsdonck;
Anonymous sale, Tajan, Hotel George V, Paris, France, 20 December 2000, as by Jacob van Hulsdonck;
Private collection, Paris, France

LITERATURE
Weltkunst, vol. 33, no. 21, 1 November 1963, p. 10, with ill.;
Damme, J. van (1990). De Antwerpse tafereelmakers en hun merken: identificatie en betekenis. Antwerpen: Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, nr. 231 (as by Jacob van Hulsdonck)

REFERENCE LITERATURE
Willigen, A. van der & Meijer, F.G. (2003). A dictionary of Dutch and Flemish still-life painters working in oils. 1525-1725. Leiden: Primavera, p. 187

CATALOGUE NOTE
Dr. Fred G. Meijer, former Curator Old Master Painting of the RKD, The Hague, states that the present painting is a free variation on a still life with the same composition by Jacob van Hulsdonck (sale Hotel Drouot, Paris, France, 4 July 1989, as lot nr. 280).

According to the RKD, Isaak Soreau was a son of Daniël Soreau, an Antwerp painter living and working in Frankfurt, and the twin brother of Peter Soreau. He specialized in ‘table- top' still lives, featuring fruits, flowers and insects, of which the present painting is a good example. He was a pupil of his father until his death in 1619 and subsequently of Sebastien Stoskopff in the late father’s studio. In view of the many similarities in his work with that of Jacob van Hulsdonck, Isaak Soreau must have worked in Van Hulsdonck's vicinity or even in his studio for some time, though this as yet has not been firmly documented. However, one of Soreau's floral still lifes has been painted on a panel with an Antwerp mark (Willigen/Meijer, 2003, p. 187). The reverse of the panel of present work, formally given to Van Hulsdonck, is stamped with the mark of the Antwerp panel maker known as the ‘Master with the Star’ and with remains of the stamp of the Antwerp Panel Makers Guild, supporting the notion that Isaak Soreau worked in Antwerp in the early 1620’s. He may also have been taught by Georg Flegel, during his Frankfurt years, whose works have been attributed in the past to the Antwerp master Osias Beert. In 1626 Isaak Soreau was documented in Hanau and supposedly subsequently worked in Frankfurt am Main until his death there in 1645.