Monday 25 January 2016

Delightful trompe-l'oeil in Dutch tradition at Gregory's (but not described as such!)

Gregory's, despite the name from Italy, sells on 5 February 2016 a "Late 17th or early 18th century" still life with parrot and flowers, estimated at 700 to 1,000 Euro.

What they seem to have missed and what makes it in my view the most desirable is the trompe-l'oeil aspect of the work.

This type of trompe-l'oeil, with the "oh no, the canvas is loose from the frame!" effect, was most popular in the Netherlands in the late 17th century, with painters like Samuel van Hoogstraten (top image, attributed to him) and especially Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts (bottom two images).

The work for sale is not good enough to be by either of those, but it is amusing, well-painted, and original enough to be interesting to many collectors and art lovers. It should be worth double the estimate or more. I wonder if a different kind of frame (or no frame at all) wouldn't enforce the effect. I don't know enough about frames to judge whether the current one could be the original, my guess would be "no".

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