Still Life with Peaches, Grapes, andMelon and a Butterfly on a StonePlateca. 1660–80

Dordrecht School

signed (erroneously) in dark paint along lower

oil on panel
40.5 x 35 cm
right corner: “G.Schalcke”
GS-100© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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How To Cite
Jansen, Guido. "Still Life with Peaches, Grapes, and Melon and a Butterfly on a Stone Plate." InThe Leiden
Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Prior to the appearance of Still Life with Peaches, Grapes, and Melon andComparative Figures

a Butterfly on a Stone Plate in a London sale in 2001, only two still lifes byGodefridus Schalcken were known.[1] Much excitement surrounded thisdiscovery because the attribution was deemed correct, both because thepainting was signed and because Schalcken featured similar peaches andgrapes in other paintings. Indeed, Schalcken’s best-known still life is A
Bunch of Grapes in Stockholm, a canvas that Peter Hecht has
convincingly related to late seventeenth-century theoretical discussions
about the best way for artists to study chiaroscuro.[2]The still life ensemble includes two bunches of grapes—one red and one
white—that rest on a green stone plinth, at the edge of which are twopeaches and a blue ribbon. Behind the grapes is a large yellow-green
melon, on top of which lie a medlar and a branch with dried, yellowish
leaves that contrast with the dark, reddish-brown background.[3] Hovering
at the left is a Red Admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta), which is stillcommonly found in the Netherlands. A dark strip approximately two
centimeters wide extends across the lower edge of the panel.
Although the signature at first seems to support an attribution of thispainting to Schalcken, its character actually differs from the artist’s normalmanner of signing. To begin with, the artist’s name is not rendered with hisusual, powerful brushwork on the stone plinth, which would have been thelogical place for him to sign this work. Rather, the signature is rather
hesitantly drawn at the extreme lower right with a fine brush and black
paint on the dark background, barely discernible to the naked eye.
Uncharacteristically, the G is placed somewhat lower than normal and theE is higher than the other letters, which look straggly compared to thefirmly defined strokes of his usual hand.[4] It now appears that thesignature is apocryphal and was added at a later date. Stylisticcomparisons also call into question this painting’s attribution to Schalcken.
Not only is the palette different, but the painting lacks the painter’s flowing
brushwork.[5]An interesting comparison can be made between the two peaches in thispainting and those in Schalcken’s Portrait of a Lady, 1680, and his Venus
with Cupid, Bacchus and Ceres in Prague, which also dates around
1680.[6] As Meijer has rightly observed, Schalcken’s peaches in the latter
two paintings are stylistically similar to those executed by his© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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contemporary from Dordrecht, Abraham van Calraet (1642–1722). In 1678
Schalcken’s teacher, Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–78), published hisInleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst (“Introduction to theAcademy of Painting”), in which he praised Van Calraet—though not byname—for distinguishing himself “by portraying a large dish piled high withbeautiful peaches, extremely juicy and perfectly rendered.” [7] As a young
artist, Schalcken undoubtedly studied Van Hoogstraten’s book and shared
his teacher’s admiration for Van Calraet’s manner of depicting peaches, asis evident in the way he modeled peaches in the two paintings executedaround 1680.[8]Even if Schalcken were inspired by Van Calraet, there is no evidence that
he made fruit and flower still lifes at that time: these only appear in hisEnglish period (1692–96). A Bouquet of Flowers in Oxford can be dated tothe 1690s, and a similarly late date holds true for A Bunch of Grapes inStockholm.[9] By that period of his career, Schalcken’s style had evolved,and neither of these still life paintings is reminiscent of those by Van
Calraet.[10] Strikingly, however, Still Life with Peaches, Grapes, and Melonand a Butterfly on a Stone Plate is closely related in composition, pictorial
elements and workmanship to one of Van Calraet’s earliest known stilllifes, in which he depicted a bunch of white grapes and five peaches on aplinth with two Red Admiral butterflies.[11] Further research is needed todetermine whether the present painting can actually be attributed to VanCalraet, but without doubt this painting is closer in style to Van Calraet’s
still lifes than to those made by Schalcken.
A date of execution around 1670 is supported by dendrochronologicalexamination. The panel’s last complete growth ring dates from 1646,
which means that the West European oak that supplied the wood for thispanel was felled after 1654. The still life is therefore likely to have been
completed between 1660 and 1680.[12]-Guido Jansen© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Still Life with Peaches, Grapes, and Melon and a Butterfly on aStone Plate
Page 5 of 8Endnotes
1. Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), nos. 209 and 210. His nos. 249 and
250 were once wrongly attributed to Schalcken. Mention must also be made here of aVanitas Still Life in Geneva, Switzerland, which is ascribed to Schalcken on the basis of thelettering around a clock, which is read as “G[…]lken”; Frédéric Elsig,L’art et ses marches:
La peinture flamande et hollandaise, XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles, au Musée d’art et d’histoire deGenève (Geneva, 2009), 352, no. 230; Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris,1988), no. 354. That painting has been attributed to Schalcken for more than two centuries,
since it was reproduced in 1815 by Landon as a line engraving in his Galerie de M. Massias,
144–45, planche 69, Tableau de nature morte, effet de lampe, par Schalken. This painting
is not likely to be identical with the Vanity by Scalken in Mr. Sykes Sale 1733 (1st Day), lot67; see Mansfield Kirby Talley, “Small, usuall, and vulgar things”: Still-Life Painting inEngland 1635–1760, Walpole Society 49 (London, 1983), 210. In spite of its very oldattribution, the painting in Geneva is not the work of Schalcken.
2. Peter Hecht, “Candlelight and Dirty Fingers, or Royal Virtue in Disguise: Some Thoughts on
Weyerman and Godfried Schalken,” Simiolus 11, no. 1 (1980): 31–35.
3. Fred G. Meijer, The Collection of Dutch and Flemish Still Life Paintings Bequeathed byDaisy Linda Ward (catalogue of the Daisy Linda Ward collection of paintings of theAshmolean Museum) (Zwolle, 2003), 273, note 2.
4. Complicating an assessment of the signature, the N is missing due to damage to the paintsurface. With thanks to the restorer of the Dordrechts Museum, Lidwien Speleers, who in
November 2012 allowed me to study the panel unframed and in good lighting conditions,including ultraviolet light.
5. In contrast to the assertions made in Fred G. Meijer,The Collection of Dutch and Flemish
Still Life Paintings Bequeathed by Daisy Linda Ward (catalogue of the Daisy Linda Wardcollection of paintings of the Ashmolean Museum) (Zwolle, 2003), 273 n. 2.
6. See Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris,1988), no. 117, for the Portrait of a Lady,and no. 43 for the large canvas in Prague. For the latter painting, see also Hanna Seifertova,in Anja K. Sevcik, National Gallery in Prague: Dutch Paintings of the 17th and 18thCenturies (Prague, 2012), no. 395, with an illustration in color.
7. Samuel van Hoogstraten, Inleyding tot de hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst: Anders dezichtbaere werelt; Verdeelt in negen leerwinkels, yder bestiert door eene derzanggodinnen… (Rotterdam, 1678), 181: “Zeker Schilder, mijn lantsgenoot, had laetst zijn
vlijt dapper betoont: want hy had een groote en wel opgehoopte schootel met schoone
Persikken uittermaeten sappich en net uitgeschildert, en zich in stuk voor stuk dapper
gequeeten. Ik verwonderde my, die ziende, over zijn vlijt en gedult” (A certain painter, my© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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fellow townsman, recently demonstrated his diligence by portraying a large dish piled highwith beautiful peaches, extremely juicy and perfectly rendered, having acquitted himself wellin each and every one. Upon seeing that, I was amazed at his diligence and patience).
8. It is always possible, of course, that Schalcken had seen and possibly admired the peachstill lifes by his fellow townsman on an earlier occasion, without this exerting an immediateinfluence on his work. It is undeniable that Schalcken painted Van Calraet-like peaches only
after Van Hoogstraten had praised them in his book.
9. Fred G. Meijer, The Collection of Dutch and Flemish Still Life Paintings Bequeathed byDaisy Linda Ward (catalogue of the Daisy Linda Ward collection of paintings of theAshmolean Museum) (Zwolle, 2003), 272–73, and Görel Cavalli-Björkman, Dutch andFlemish Paintings, 3 vols. (Stockholm, 2005), 446–47, no. 450.
10. Abraham van Calraet, on the other hand, had examined Schalcken’s work closely. Severalof his genre pieces, painted in the style of Schalcken, were once attributed to him. An
example is Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris,1988), no. 286, which in my view
is by Van Calraet. The small oval painting A Laughing Man with a Glass of Wine was also
ascribed to Schalcken. Ineke Wansink of the RKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische
Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History) has reattributed this panel to VanCalraet; see the note on the photograph kept at the RKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische
Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History). In 1966 this small panel was on display
at Norwich Castle Museum as a Schalcken as part of the exhibitionDutch Paintings fromEast Anglia; at the time it belonged to the collection of T. R. C. Blofeld at Hoveton, Wroxham,Norfolk; see M. Rajnai, Dutch Paintings from East Anglia: Loan Exhibition, 20 July–29
August 1966 (Exh. cat. Norwich Castle Museum) (Norwich, 1966), no. 40 (14.6 x 11.4 cm;
not illustrated).
11. This panel, measuring 42 x 37.8 cm, was last seen at a sale in London (Phillips, 5 December
1995, lot 26, with an illustration in color). It is signed in full at the lower left:167(0) fecit A v
kalraet Beeltsneijder. The type of signature indicates that this is one of Van Calraet’s earliest
still lifes. A reproduction of it can also be found on the RKD (Rijksbureau voor
Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History)’s website, images, no.
10751.
12. See the report by Ian Tyers, “The Tree-Ring Analysis of 12 Panel Paintings from the Leiden
Gallery, New York” (November 2012), 26.

Provenance
Private collection (sale, Christie’s, London, 11 July 2001, no. 40).
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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[Rafael Valls Ltd., London, 2002].
(Sale, Galerie Koller, Zürich, 24 September 2003, no. 3061).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2003.

Exhibition History
Dordrecht, Dordrecht Museum, temporary exhibition with the permanent collection,
November 2010–March 2013 [lent by the present owner].

References
Beherman, Thierry. Godfried Schalcken. Paris, 1988, 330, no. 251.
Rafael Valls Ltd. Recent Acquisitions. London, 2002, no. 30.
Van der Willigen, Adriaan and Meijer, Fred G. A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-life
Painters Working in Oils, 1525–1725. Leiden, 2003, 178.
Meijer, Fred G. The Collection of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Paintings Bequeathed byDaisy Linda Ward. Zwolle, 2003, 123, 272–73, no. 67, n. 2.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, vertically oriented rectangular, wedge-shaped
oak, has bevels along three sides.[1] The panel is unthinned and uncradled and has machine tool
marks.[2] There is one paper label and white chalk along the panel reverse but no wax collection
seals, import stamps or panel maker’s mark.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by a gray underlayer.[3] The
paint has been smoothly applied with no use of impasto. Dark brown paint is visible below thered paint along the background.[4]The painting has not been examined with infrared. In the X-radiograph, the peaches are radioopaque, and under ultraviolet light, restorations are visible along the background.
The painting is (erroneously) signed in dark paint along the lower right corner but is undated.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2003 and remains
in a good state of preservation.[5]© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of wood is based on visual examination only. There are bevels along
all but the left edge as viewed from the reverse.
2. Based on visual examination of the X-radiograph. The machine toolmarks are not noted inthe Dordrecht examination report.
3. Based on visual examination of the high-resolution image. The ground color andunderlayer are not noted in the Dordrecht examination report.
4. The red layer overlaps the yellow leaves.
5. Entry based on December 2011 examination report by Lidwien Speleers, paintings
conservator, Dordrecht Museum, and information gleaned by reexamining the front andverso images and the X-radiograph.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection