Jan FRIS (AMSTERDAM c. 1627-c. 1672) - Lot 30

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Lot n° 30
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30000 - 50000 EUR
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Result : 37 000EUR
Jan FRIS (AMSTERDAM c. 1627-c. 1672) - Lot 30
Jan FRIS (AMSTERDAM c. 1627-c. 1672) Vanity Canvas. 111,5 x 87 cm. Signed on the right J. Fris 1666. Provenance: Sotheby's sale, London, Nov. 30, 1983, no. 97. Briscadieu Bordeaux sale, 23 Nov. 2019, no. 17, presented as part of the estate of the previous owner Bibliography: Erica Gemar-Koeltzsch, Holländische Stillebenmaler im 17. Jahrundert, Luca Verlag Lingen, 1995, vol.2, p. 359,no.129/3 (reproduced) Adriaan van der Willigen, Fred G. Meijr, A dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Painters Working in Oils 1525-1725, Leiden, 2003, p.85 (simple mention). The 1983 sale catalog indicates that our painting came from the Earls of Lothian, Newbattle Abbey, and Monteviot House, Jedburgh, Scotland, probably acquired by their ancestor Robert Kerr (1636-1703), first Marquess of Lothian. He was an important collector of contemporary Dutch still lifes; he acquired paintings by Roestraten and Collier directly from the artists and had himself portrayed by Simon Verelst (Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh). His grandfather, Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancram, imported Rembrandts to England for himself and Charles I as early as 1629, and his father was a close friend of the Duke of Buckingham, also a great collector of paintings. Jan Fris devoted himself exclusively to vanity still lifes. His paintings remain rare, barely fifteen can be listed today, although several of them appear in Dutch inventories from the late 17th century. He began in the 1650s with small panels, tabagies and "monochrome banquets" close to Pieter Claesz and Jan van de Velde III. From the middle of the following decade, he composed larger formats on canvas and a little more colorful, an evolution similar to that of an Edwaert Collier. Here, in the center of the canvas, around the skull and a humerus, he placed symbols of the irreversible flight of time and the fragility of life (an hourglass, a burning candle, a fragile glass) and symbols of knowledge, wealth and luxury (the globe, books, carpet). The most original element is the helmet with the chamarré feathers in the center, vanity of the appearance. This spectacular element is found in three other paintings by Jan Fris: Vanity with helmet and statue of Apollo (sold at the Hotel Drouot in 2011), Vanity with musical instruments (1670, art trade in the 2000s).
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