Still Life with Fruit, Wanli Porcelain, and Squirrel

Frans Snyders (Flemish, 1579–1657)

1616

Medium/TechniqueOil on copper

Dimensions56 x 84 cm (22 1/16 x 33 1/16 in.)

Credit LineM. and M. Karolik Fund and Frank Brewer Bemis Fund

Accession number1993.566

On View

On view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

InscriptionsSigned and dated lower right: Frans Snyders fecit 1616ProvenanceSchaumburg-Lippe collection, Germany [see note 1]. December 16, 1929, Régine Chasles and others sale, Galerie Fievez, Brussels, lot 90. 1934, Kunsthaus A.G., Lucerne, Switzerland. By 1956, Edmond Meert, Saint-Nicholas-Waas, Belgium [see note 2]. Deschandau collection, Belgium [see note 3]. 1970, with Edward Speelman, Ltd., London; 1970, sold by Speelman to Robert H. Smith, Arlington, VA [see note 4]; 1993, sold by Smith to the MFA. (Accession Date: September 22, 1993)

NOTES:
[1] The provenance given here (to 1956) is taken from Hella Robels, "Frans Snyders, Stilleben- und Tiermaler, 1579-1657" (Munich, 1989), p. 261, cat. no. 125.

[2] Edith Greindl, "Les peintres flamandes de nature morte au XVIIe siècle" (Brussels, 1956), p. 181, published the painting as in the collection of Edmond Meert, though when he acquired it and when it left his possession have not been established.

[3] According to information provided by Anthony Speelman of Edward Speelman, Ltd. (May 17, 2004). The dates of ownership are not known, nor has it been established whether Speelman acquired the painting directly from this collection.

[4] That the painting was purchased from Speelman in 1970 is information provided by Robert Smith in a letter to Peter C. Sutton of the MFA (July 14, 1993; in MFA curatorial file).