A Chinese Bowl with Fruit

A porcelain bowl, set upon a stone shelf, overflows with a profusion of late summer fruit. Swathes of grapes, supported by an intricate tangle of vine leaves and tendrils, are carefully arranged in bunches that today appear as translucent bubbles, their once green and black fruits faded to tints of blue where the yellow pigment has degraded. Beneath the grapes, delicately balanced on the bowl’s rim, are peaches and apricots, their velvety skin rendered with subtle shifts of flat tone that contrast with the glossy grapes above. Lush raspberries spill over the edge of the shelf, tempting the viewer to reach in and pluck one from the stalk. Painted at almost life-size, the trompe-l’oeil (literally, 'trick the eye') effect is heightened with glistening drops of water and insects hidden amongst the foliage. This Dutch still life painting can also be read as a vanitas, or memento mori: a reminder of the frailty of life. The sharply cut vine stalk alludes to the severance of life, while the open walnut, ants nibbling at the fruit, the overripe apricot and the butterflies flitting among the leaves, are all reminders of decay, death and a short lifespan amid life’s beauty.  

The signature on the lower left edge of the plinth has been converted at some time from ‘f. M van Huysum’ to read 'Jan van Huysum', after the acclaimed seventeenth-century Dutch flower painter (1682-1749). However, the painting was later reattributed to his brother, Michiel van Huysum (1703-77), and more recently to his daughter, Francina Margaretha van Huysum (1707-89). Michiel van Huysum worked in his brother’s style, becoming a respected botanical artist in his own right. Recently, the works of Francina Margaretha van Huysum have been recognised and it appears to be her signature that has been erased here. She was the only woman to be admitted to her father’s studio and trusted with witnessing his technique. She lived and worked in the same house as her half-uncle, Michiel van Huysum.