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North European School, 17th or 18th century
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Description
North European School, 17th or 18th century
Still Life with Assorted Shells on a Table
oil on canvas
canvas: 14 ? by 22 ? in.; 37.8 by 57.5 cm.
framed: 18 ? by 26 ? in.; 47.3 by 66.4 cm.
Provenance
H.A. Metzger
Department of Fine Arts, Wells College, Aurora, New York, 1960 (as Emmanuel Decritz)
By whom deaccessioned ("Property from the Wells College Collection"), New York, Sotheby's, 29 January 2015, lot 277 (as Northern European School, 17th century)
Catalogue note
This varied assortment of exotic seashells—including a nautilus, conches, and cone shells—evokes the distant lands from which they were imported to northern Europe. The costly, tropical specimens, harvested in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, were highly sought after during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a time of widening European colonialism in Asia. Indeed, both the rarified objects and the painting itself would have been understood as luxury collectibles. Within the vanitas still-life tradition, molluscan imagery alluded to worldly transience, thereby inviting spectators to meditate on their own mortality.
Still Life with Assorted Shells on a Table
oil on canvas
canvas: 14 ? by 22 ? in.; 37.8 by 57.5 cm.
framed: 18 ? by 26 ? in.; 47.3 by 66.4 cm.
Provenance
H.A. Metzger
Department of Fine Arts, Wells College, Aurora, New York, 1960 (as Emmanuel Decritz)
By whom deaccessioned ("Property from the Wells College Collection"), New York, Sotheby's, 29 January 2015, lot 277 (as Northern European School, 17th century)
Catalogue note
This varied assortment of exotic seashells—including a nautilus, conches, and cone shells—evokes the distant lands from which they were imported to northern Europe. The costly, tropical specimens, harvested in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, were highly sought after during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a time of widening European colonialism in Asia. Indeed, both the rarified objects and the painting itself would have been understood as luxury collectibles. Within the vanitas still-life tradition, molluscan imagery alluded to worldly transience, thereby inviting spectators to meditate on their own mortality.
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North European School, 17th or 18th century
Still Life with Assorted Shells on a Table
oil on canvas
canvas: 14 ? by 22 ? in.; 37.8 by 57.5 cm.
framed: 18 ? by 26 ? in.; 47.3 by 66.4 cm.
Provenance
H.A. Metzger
Department of Fine Arts, Wells College, Aurora, New York, 1960 (as Emmanuel Decritz)
By whom deaccessioned ("Property from the Wells College Collection"), New York, Sotheby's, 29 January 2015, lot 277 (as Northern European School, 17th century)
Catalogue note
This varied assortment of exotic seashells—including a nautilus, conches, and cone shells—evokes the distant lands from which they were imported to northern Europe. The costly, tropical specimens, harvested in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, were highly sought after during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a time of widening European colonialism in Asia. Indeed, both the rarified objects and the painting itself would have been understood as luxury collectibles. Within the vanitas still-life tradition, molluscan imagery alluded to worldly transience, thereby inviting spectators to meditate on their own mortality.
Still Life with Assorted Shells on a Table
oil on canvas
canvas: 14 ? by 22 ? in.; 37.8 by 57.5 cm.
framed: 18 ? by 26 ? in.; 47.3 by 66.4 cm.
Provenance
H.A. Metzger
Department of Fine Arts, Wells College, Aurora, New York, 1960 (as Emmanuel Decritz)
By whom deaccessioned ("Property from the Wells College Collection"), New York, Sotheby's, 29 January 2015, lot 277 (as Northern European School, 17th century)
Catalogue note
This varied assortment of exotic seashells—including a nautilus, conches, and cone shells—evokes the distant lands from which they were imported to northern Europe. The costly, tropical specimens, harvested in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, were highly sought after during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a time of widening European colonialism in Asia. Indeed, both the rarified objects and the painting itself would have been understood as luxury collectibles. Within the vanitas still-life tradition, molluscan imagery alluded to worldly transience, thereby inviting spectators to meditate on their own mortality.
The Pleasure of Objects: The Ian & Carolina Irving Collection
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New York
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