Description

Jacob Rotius (Hoorn, 1644 – 1681)

Fruit Still Life in Landscape

Material: Oil on canvas
Dimension: 66 x 53,5 cm
Frame: Yes
Dated: 1675

About the Artist:

Jacob Rotius was born 1644 in Hoorn (The Netherlands). He is a known old masters artist from the 17th Century.

According to the painter and art biographer Arnold Houbraken, Rotius studied under Jan Davidsz de Heem. More recent research has revealed that he was the son of the flower painter and portraitist Jan Albertsz Rotius (1624 – 1666). However, in keeping with the career opportunities of the “Golden Age” of Dutch painting, Jacob Rotius specialized in still lifes.

As his paintings show, he followed less the traditional scheme of artificially constructed flower or fruit arrangements, but rather a freer, more random composition. This is also the case in the present painting: probably based on Italian examples, the painter has presented the fruit here in a loose manner on a floor in a landscape, next to a high stone pillar on the left of the picture, in front of a draped curtain on the right, with a view into the hilly distance as the sun sets. Fruit, melons and grapes in a large basket and in front of it, interspersed with vine leaves and insects, form a lush fruit still life in baroque abundance. On the horizon, a small town against a mountain silhouette. A.R.