VP4653

HUBERT VAN RAVESTEYN

(1638 – - 1683/91)

A Still Life of a porcelain or Delft blue Plate of Walnuts on a marble Table, with an Orange, a Rhenish stoneware Jug and a Knife with a black and white Handle

Signed centre in monogram: HR. (H and R connected) On canvas: 20¾ x 17½ ins. (52.7 x 44.5 cm)

Painted circa 1670

PROVENANCE Sir William BM Bird, JP, MP (1855-1950) his estate sale, Sotheby’s , 28th February 1951, lot 61 (£ 280 to Drown) Eugene Slatter. London, 1951 Edwin Cohen, Hazelhurst Sway, Hampshire, by 1952 Private Collection, United Kingdom, until 2013

EXHIBITED London, Eugene Slatter Gallery, Flower and Still Life Paintings by Dutch & Flemish masters, 1943, cat. no.22 London, Royal Academy, Dutch Picures 1450-1750, 1952-53, cat. no.71

Hubert van Ravesteyn was born in Dordrecht in June 1638, the son of the decorative painter Herman van Ravesteyn. His teacher is unknown, but he may well have been initiated into painting by his father. Some of his early figure paintings show some reminiscence of the work of Abraham Diepraam (1622-1670), who became a member of the Dordrecht guild in 1648, but who moved back to Rotterdam at an unknown date. The oeuvre of Hubert van Ravesteyn, invariably signed with his connected initials HR, consists of several groups of rather disparate subjects and quality, which would appear to follow each other chronologically. This is difficult to establish for fact however, since van Ravesteyn only dated a small number of still lifes related to the present one, fairly late in his career. Probably his earliest works are his rather mediocre small images of peasants, perhaps inspired by Diepraam, but also by such artists as Adriaen van Ostade and . More sophisticated in quality are his barn interiors with animals and figures that – for the animals – appear to draw their inspiration from the work of his fellow townsman Aelbert Cuyp. The interiors are also closely related to a series of still lifes of fruit and vegetables, of which there is a good example in the Dordrecht Museum.

The present painting belongs to a group of about ten known vertical still lifes of smoking and drinking utensils on a partly draped, often marble table. They vary in height from about 40 to 70 centimetres (15 ¾ to 27 ½ in). It is a point of discussion whether or not some of these still life are actually dated: the dates on those paintings are all inscribed upon the tobacco wrappers included in them, as if belonging to those wrappers rather than to the painting. In any case, they can be regarded as a date on or after which the painting in question was produced. There are examples with the dates 1664 (Harold Samuel Collection, City of London, Mansion House), 1667 (with Eugene Slatter London, 1956), 1670 (two examples in private collections) and 1671 (Art Gallery, Toronto). Comparing these works, there appears to be little stylistic development between them, other than that the example dated 1664 is somewhat closer in style to the (earlier) still lifes of fruit and vegetables. Van Ravesteyn clearly was an artist who most of the time when painting new work liked to stay close to compositions that had proven to be successful, rather than to experiment and search for new inventions. His attention to detail has a personal refinement, however, each walnut has been observed closely and separately and so have other details. An interesting and individual feature are the drops – of wine or condensed water? – upon the stoneware jug. They are also present in two of three other examples featuring the object.

The lack of clear development makes it difficult to date the present painting with much accuracy. It shares the motif of the bowl of walnuts with paintings that bear the date 1667, 1670 and 1671. The decoration of the bowl and the arrangement of the nuts within it differ from painting to painting, however. The stoneware jug and a rummer also feature in other examples dated 1667 and 1670 and a similar tablecloth can be found in most examples, but in this painting it is most freely creased. To suggest a date of origin of about 1670 for this painting would in any case appear to be plausible.

Ingvar Bergstöm (in his catalogue of the exhibition of the Heinz Collection, Washington DC 1989, p.121) suggested that for this type of still life Hubert van Ravesteyn was probably inspired by works by the still-life painters Jan Fris and Jan Jz. Van de Velde. The artist may well have seen some of their works, but inspiration may also have come from closer

to home: his fellow townsman Abraham Susenier (c.1620-1666 or after) produced several still lifes with similar motifs and may be considered the more inventive of the two painters.

Nevertheless, with this still life, Hubert van Ravesteyn produced an excellent atmospheric and attractive still life, praising the pleasures of simple but luxurious food and drink.

Fred G. Meijer, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, .