"Attributed to Frans Snyders": workshop of Peter van Boucle

Vanderkindere, from Belgium, sells on 22 January 2020 an "attributed to Frans Snyders" still life, estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 Euro.

This good sized work (96 by 128 cm) is painted by Peter van Boucle (born ca. 1600, died 1673), a pupil of Snyders. He worked mainly in Paris and was known almost exclusively for still lifes, often with animals in them. Some tell-tale characteristics reveal his hand.

The RKD lists a very similar work with a Genuese art dealer in 1968. The boar's head, the hare with the sniffing dog, ...

Another one was sold at Drouot in 1971.

This one is from a private collection. The way the white cloth is folded is remarkably similar.

Originally sold as by Frans Snyders (in 1972 with art dealer Jungeling), now reattributed to Van Boucle. The position and order of duck / hare / partridge(?) is comparable.

Still via RKD, offered at Sotheby's in 1990, again with a boar's head in the background. And a whole series of others with similar dogs, hares, birds, ...

Ivoire, an auction house from Toulouse, in France, offered a signed van Boucle of a similar size with again some elements very close to the one here. Their estimate was 6,000 to 8,000 Euro. The quality of the image is quite low, but one can see that the hare here is very close to the one on the work for sale, both the position and details like the ears. It also contains a sniffing hunting dog with a narrow collar around its neck, a dead duck, and a similar live chicken.

While the work offered at Vanderkindere doesn't match the quality of van Boucle's best works, it still has some elements showing real quality (like the above detail of the dog and hare), and is worthy of a "Workshop of" label. The estimate is probably about right, it may fetch 5,000 Euro on a good day.

UPDATE: sold for 2,200 Euro.

"Manner of Roelandt Savery" is follower of Frans Snyders

Carlo Bonte, from Belgium, sells on 21 March 2017 a "Unsigned, late 16th / early 17 century, in the manner of Roelandt Savery" Still Life with grapes and exotic birds, a panel painting estimated at 2,000 to 4,000 Euro.

The work doesn't resemble Savery (1576-1639) so much as it does some works by his contemporary Frans Snyders (1579-1657), from which it seems to have copied the style and the use of some birds, even though a straight copy is hard to find. The work isn't good enough to be a Snyders or even a Workshop of Snyders, and is probably best described as a Follower of Frans Snyders.  Late 16th century in any case is a bit optimistic for this work, which is firmly seventeenth century.

The grapes as such could be a by or after a number of painters, including Snyders. Grapes were among the most popular elements in still lifes. Even Savery used them sometimes, but they are a less typical element in his works.

But the birds are the most obvious link between this work and Snyders. Especially his multiple variations of the "Concert with Birds" contain some very similar examples.

For example the blue tit has a similar pose, but it isn't a real copy.

The hoopoe also is quite close.

As is the swallow.

I'm not quite sure what this rather twisted bird is supposed to be, but again something very similar appears in the works of Snyders.

It's almost as if someone had access to some now lost work by Snyders and copied it, or could use a lot of his preparatory drawings, and created a new  composition from them.

I haven't been able to find any other similar work (an outdoors scene where a lot of birds surround some bunches of grapes), usually you have indoor grapes with one or two small birds, or outdoor birds on a tree.

All in all, an unusual and remarkable work, but not by a major artist. The estimate seems about right, perhaps a bit low.

UPDATE: sold for 25,000 Euro, a bit low indeed!!