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Still Life in an Architectural Setting
about 1645
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
112.4 x 82.9 cm (44 1/4 x 32 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow Fund
Accession Number50.2728
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
This sumptuous and theatrical kind of still life is called, in Dutch, a pronkstilleven, a word that refers both to the rarity and beauty of the objects and to the showy, even ostentatious, manner of their presentation. It is generally accepted that at least two painters worked on this canvas, but their identities are not certain. Such collaboration was not unusual; in many large and busy studios, specialists in painting figures, architecture, animals, and other subjects often contributed their individual skills to a single work.
ProvenanceFrançois Emmanuel van Ertborn (b. 1716 - d. 1791), Antwerp; August 18, 1807, posthumous Ertborn sale, Beeckmans, Antwerp, lot 42, to Henri-Joseph Stier d'Aertselaer, Antwerp; July 29, 1822, Aertselaer sale, G. J. Bincken, Antwerp, lot 25, to Paramosky (or Baranowsky), Vienna. Jean Baptiste Puthon (b. 1773 - d. 1839), Vienna; 1840, sold from the Puthon collection, probably through Artaria and Co., Vienna, to Philipp Dräxler von Carin, Vienna; probably sold by Dräxler von Carin to Baron Samuel von Festetits (b. 1806 - d. 1862), Vienna [see note 1]; March 7 and April 11, 1859, Festetits sale, Vienna, lot 101, to Friedrich Jakob Gsell (d. 1872), Vienna; March 14, 1872, Gsell sale, Plach, Vienna, lot 30, sold to Plach, possibly for Anselm Solomon von Rothschild (b. 1803 - d. 1874), Vienna; by descent to Nathaniel von Rothschild (b. 1836 - d. 1905), Vienna; by descent to his nephew, Alphonse Rothschild (b. 1878 - d. 1942) and Clarice de Rothschild (b. 1894 - d. 1967), Vienna; 1938, confiscated from Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild by Nazi forces (no. AR884); taken to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, stored at the Central Depot, Neue Burg, Vienna, and selected for the Führermuseum, Linz [see note 2]; removed to the monastery of Kremsmünster (K 995); December 16, 1943, taken from Kremsmünster to the Führerbau, Munich (no. 3225) [see note 3] and later moved to Alt Aussee [see note 4]; July 19, 1945, shipped by Allied forces to the Munich Central Collecting Point (MCCP no. 4928) [see note 5]; May 11, 1948, released from the MCCP to United States Forces in Austria; April 12, 1949, returned to Clarice de Rothschild, New York [see note 6]; sold by Clarice de Rothschild to Rosenberg and Stiebel, New York; 1950, sold by Rosenberg and Stiebel to the MFA for $3,000. (Accession Date: September 14, 1950)
NOTES:
[1] On the provenance of this painting from Puthon to Gsell, see Theodor von Frimmel, "Lexikon der Wiener Gemäldesammlungen" (Munich, 1913), pp. 290, 375-376. Festetits acquired many works of art from Dräxler von Carin, and it is likely that he acquired this painting from him as well.
[2] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This painting appears in a Nazi-generated inventory of 1939 as no. AR (Alphonse Rothschild) 884: "Jan Fyt, Architektur mit Stilleben. Leinwand, 112 x 83." Katalog beschlagnahmter Sammlungen, inbesondere der Rothschild-Sammlungen in Wien, Verlags-Nr. 4938, Staatsdruckerei Wien, 1939, Privatarchiv, reproduced in Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 1032. The Führermuseum, the art museum Adolf Hitler planned to build in Linz, Austria, was given right of first refusal over the confiscated Rothschild collection. This painting was included in an inventory of the museum drawn up on July 31, 1940. CIR no. 4, attachment 73.
[3] The Führerbau in Munich was used as a repository for works of art. An inventory of the paintings was drawn up in 1943; the Führerbau inventory number, 3225, is recorded on the reverse of this painting's stretcher in chalk and on a label.
[4] Many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept safe from wartime bombing.
[5] Allied troops recovered the artwork at the end of World War II and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. This painting came to the Munich Central Collecting Point in 1945 from Alt Aussee (number 3577), and was numbered 4928, which is recorded on the reverse of the painting stretcher. The Munich Central Collecting Point inventory card is held by the National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland (Property Card 4928; National Archives Record Group 260, Box 501; and National Archives Record Group 260, Entry USACA-USFA; File Rep & Rest. Box 158).
[6] See Birgit Schwarz, "Hitlers Museum. Die Fotoalben Gemäldegalerie Linz: Dokumente zum 'Führermuseum'" (Cologne and Weimar, 2004), p. 101, no. II/26.
NOTES:
[1] On the provenance of this painting from Puthon to Gsell, see Theodor von Frimmel, "Lexikon der Wiener Gemäldesammlungen" (Munich, 1913), pp. 290, 375-376. Festetits acquired many works of art from Dräxler von Carin, and it is likely that he acquired this painting from him as well.
[2] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This painting appears in a Nazi-generated inventory of 1939 as no. AR (Alphonse Rothschild) 884: "Jan Fyt, Architektur mit Stilleben. Leinwand, 112 x 83." Katalog beschlagnahmter Sammlungen, inbesondere der Rothschild-Sammlungen in Wien, Verlags-Nr. 4938, Staatsdruckerei Wien, 1939, Privatarchiv, reproduced in Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 1032. The Führermuseum, the art museum Adolf Hitler planned to build in Linz, Austria, was given right of first refusal over the confiscated Rothschild collection. This painting was included in an inventory of the museum drawn up on July 31, 1940. CIR no. 4, attachment 73.
[3] The Führerbau in Munich was used as a repository for works of art. An inventory of the paintings was drawn up in 1943; the Führerbau inventory number, 3225, is recorded on the reverse of this painting's stretcher in chalk and on a label.
[4] Many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept safe from wartime bombing.
[5] Allied troops recovered the artwork at the end of World War II and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. This painting came to the Munich Central Collecting Point in 1945 from Alt Aussee (number 3577), and was numbered 4928, which is recorded on the reverse of the painting stretcher. The Munich Central Collecting Point inventory card is held by the National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland (Property Card 4928; National Archives Record Group 260, Box 501; and National Archives Record Group 260, Entry USACA-USFA; File Rep & Rest. Box 158).
[6] See Birgit Schwarz, "Hitlers Museum. Die Fotoalben Gemäldegalerie Linz: Dokumente zum 'Führermuseum'" (Cologne and Weimar, 2004), p. 101, no. II/26.