FOLLOWER OF OSIAS BEERT I (Circa 1605-1630) Almonds, Oysters, Sweets, Chestnuts, and Wine on a Wooden Table bears signature D. D. Heem with the second and third initials conjoined in the lower left foreground oil on panel 1 18 /8 x 25 ¾ inches (46.1 x 68.5 cm.) PROVENANCE Arot Collection M. Arot sale, Galerie Fievez, Brussels, October 29, 1928, lot 52, plate X (as Jean-David de Heem) D.A. Hoogendijk & Co., Amsterdam, 1932 (as David de Heem) Duits Ltd., Amsterdam & London, from whom acquired by Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, by 1933, inventory number 2567 (as David de Heem) Looted by Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, July 1940, who sold it to Alois Miedel, then owner of Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker, Amsterdam, 1940 Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker-Miedel sale, Hans W. Lange, Berlin, December 3-4, 1940, lot 23, plate 20 (attribution changed by Walther Bernt to Osias Beert II) Anonymous sale, Kunsthaus Lempertz, Cologne, May 22-27, 1957, lot 1182, illustrated (as Osias Beert II) Gemälde-Galerie Abels, Cologne, 1957 Kunsthandlung Julius Böhler, Munich, until December 1957 (as Osias Beert) where purchased by Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam (as Osias Beert) who sold it to F. Thornton, Antwerp, February 1958 Private Collection, The Hague, by 1969 Private Collection, France Anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, December 2, 2008, lot 23 (as Follower of Osias Beert I) Anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, October 28, 2009, lot 50 (as Follower of Osias Beert I) Restituted to Marei von Saher, heir to Jacques Goudstikker, March 2012 “Collection of Jacques Goudstikker sale,” Christie’s, New York, June 3, 2015, lot 50 (as Circle of Osias Beert I) EXHIBITED Amsterdam, D.A. Hoogendijk & Co., Catalogus van schilderijen van weinig bekende meesters uit de zeventiende eeuw, June 15 - July 15, 1932, no. 39 (as David de Heem) Amsterdam, Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker, Het Stilleven, February 18 - March 26, 1933, no. 138 (as David de Heem) The Hague, Kunsthandel G.J. Nieuwenhuizen Segaar, Oude Kunst, October 20 – November 17, 1934, no. 16 (as David de Heem) LITERATURE H. P. Bremmer, Beeldende Kunst, no. 43, jaargang 18, W. Scherjon, Utrecht, 1931, illustrated (as D. de Heem) Catalogus van schilderijen van weinig bekende meesters uit de zeventiende eeuw, D.A. Hoogendijk & Co., Amsterdam, June 15 – July 15, 1932, no. 39 (as David de Heem) Het Stilleven, exhibition catalog, Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker, Amsterdam, February 18- March 26, 1933, no. 138, unpaginated (as David de Heem) George Isarlov, “L’Exposition de la Nature Morte à Amsterdam” in Formes, no. 32, Editions des Quatre Chemins, Paris, Summer 1933, p. 361, fn. 5, illustrated (as David de Heem I) Oude Kunst, Kunsthandel G.J. Nieuwenhuizen Segaar, The Hague, October 20 - November 17, 1934, no. 16, unpaginated. (as David de Heem) W. Jos de Gruyter, Het Vaderland, Novmber 10, 1934 (as David de Heem) Art and Auctions, volume I, no. 12, Van Kouteren’s Publishing Co., Ltd., Rotterdam, July 1957, p. 341, illustrated (as Osias Beert) A.P. de Mirimonde, “Musique et symbolisme chez Jan-Davidszoon de Heem, Cornelis- Janszoon et Jan II Janszoon de Heem” in Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, 1969, p. 245 (as one of three known works signed by David de Heem) Sam Segal, A Prosperous Past, The Sumptuous Still Life in the Netherlands 1600-1700, SDU Publishers, The Hague, 1988, p. 229 (as another version of Still Life with the Rich Man and Poor Lazarus by Osias Beert I) “De 14 nooit geveilde werken van Goudstikker-erfgename Marei von Saher” in NRC.NL>in beeld, May 7, 2015, p. 6, illustrated (as Osias Beert I) The depiction of this sumptuous still life derives from imagery used by Osias Beert I and Frans Francken I to illustrate the story The Rich Man and Poor Lazarus, a parable of greed and deprivation. A direct reflection of this tale can be found in the remarkable history of this panel during the course of the twentieth century. The earliest known provenance for this tempting array of painted delights is the Arot Collection, which encompassed a distinguished group of European paintings that ranged from the fifteenth to twentieth centuries. The collection was sold by Galerie Fievez, Brussels, on October 29, 1928. Misinterpreting the David de Heem signature, the panel was catalogued as by Jean-David de Heem. By 1932 the painting was with D.A. Hoogendijk & Co., a gallery which ranked among the top old master dealers in Amsterdam. It was included in their 1932 exhibition of seventeenth century masters as the work of David de Heem.1 The next recorded owner is Duits, Ltd., a firm that specialized in Dutch and Flemish old master paintings. It first opened in Dordrecht in 1836 and then relocated to Amsterdam in 1875, later opening a branch in London in 1920. By 1933 Jacques Goudstikker had purchased the work from Duits and recorded the transaction in pounds in his inventory book under no. 2567. Goudstikker was one of the most important Dutch art dealers of the period. His firm Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker was located in a seventeenth century canal house on the Herengracht in Amsterdam. His interest in old masters ranged from Italian gold ground and Renaissance works to early Netherlandish and German paintings, Dutch and Flemish seventeenth century paintings, to the French and Italian Rococo. He mounted extraordinary shows in the 1930s, innovatively focusing on thematic exhibitions,2 such as the wide-ranging Het Stilleven that included our panel (no.138, as by David de Heem). 1 David de Heem was traditionally believed to have been born in Utrecht, possibly in 1570, and to have died in Antwerp, perhaps in 1632. He was categorized as a “still-life painter of distinction”. – See John Denison Champlin, Jr. & Charles C. Perkins, eds., “David de Heem” in Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, volume II, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1900, p. 222. Although the father of Jan Davidsz. de Heem is often recorded as David de Heem I, in actuality he was not a painter, and his correct name was David van Antwerpen. Clarification given in a written communication from Fred G. Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, dated December 28, 2015. 2 Peter Sutton, “Director’s Preface” and “Jacques Goudstikker (1891-1940): Art Dealer, Impresario and Tastemaker” in Reclaimed Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker, exhibition catalog, Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut, May 10 - September 7, 2008, and The Jewish Museum, New York, March 12 – August 2, 2009, pp. 10, 25. The show consisted of 362 still lifes dating from the fifteenth to twentieth century. In reviewing the exhibition in Formes, George Isarlov pointed to the so-called David de Heem as representative of a growing international style among such painters as Georg Flegel, Peter Binoit, Louise Moillon, Jacob van Es, Floris van Dijck, and Clara Peeters. The article’s nine illustrations, among which this work was included, were described by Isarlov as the principal works of the show.3 In 1934 the painting was loaned to the exhibition, Oude Kunst, held at Kunsthandel G.J. Nieuwenhuizen Segaar in The Hague. Once again it was singled out, along with a few others, as a highlight of the show. W. Jos de Gruyter, then visual arts editor for Het Vaderland, wrote “Vooral menig stilleven mag hier zonder voorbehoud worden: ... nr.16 van David de Heem ... stuk voor stuk kostelijke schilderijen.” (In particular many still lifes can be lauded here unreservedly: [mentions a few others] no. 16 by David de Heem, ... one after the other splendid paintings.) Goudstikker advised important clients, among them by the early 1930s Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. He sold to major museums including the Rijksmuseum; Mauritshuis; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen; National Gallery, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Art Institute of Chicago. Yet such renowned success served to make Goudstikker a prime target once the Nazis invaded on May 10, 1940. Miraculously, on May 13th, accompanied by his wife Dési and young son Edward, he managed to book passage on the cargo ship SS Bodegraven bound for Dover. As the ship was teeming with fleeing refugees, conditions on board were deplorable. That night, unable to sleep in the airless hold the family had been crammed into, Goudstikker sought relief on the blacked-out deck. In the darkness he fell through an open hatch and was killed. When the body was recovered a small notebook was found containing details on the 1,113 artworks of his inventory. This notebook would come to be known as the Blackbook.4 Two weeks after Goudstikker’s death Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering visited his gallery. Eager to be next in line in the plundering of Goudstikker’s stock after Adolf Hitler had his pick; the curator of the collection at his country estate Carinhall, Walter Andreas Hofer, had already traveled to Holland on May 20th. Shortly thereafter, a sale of the inventory, gallery, and properties was arranged.5 Kajetan Mühlmann, a captain in the SS who also held a Ph.D. in art history, and had been in charge of the Sonderbeauftragten fur die Erfassung der Kunst und Kulturschätze (Special Commission for the Disposition of Art and Cultural Treasures) in Poland, had by the end of May set up an office in The Hague. One of his initial acts was to establish bank accounts for Hitler, Goering, and 3 George Isarlov, op. cit., pp. 360-361. 4 Lynn H. Nicholas, “A Long Odyssey: the Goudstikker Collection” in Important Old Master Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker, April 1, 2007, New York, pp. 9-10.; Peter Sutton, op.