Magnificent classic fruits still life with pineapples, grapes, peaches, plums, butterfly and fly was painted around 1800-1810. According to fully identical style, composition, creation time and provenance this extremely high quality painting was attributed to the hand of prominent Belgian flower painter Jan Frans van Dael (1764 Antwerp - 1840 Paris). For comparison see a few additional images of Van Dael's still lifes.

Here is his biography from general art lexicon by Saur:

" Dael, Jan-Frans van, Belgian flower, landscape and miniature painter, (1764 Antwerp - 1840 Paris). GEO certificate: former Netherlands; France. The son of a carpenter. With twelve years of training in the studio of a decorative painter, then student at the Academy of Antwerp; 1784 and 1785 first prizes for architecture. From 1786 D. lives in Paris, carries out decoration work (imitation wood, ornamentation, arabesques), possibly together with Piat Joseph Sauvage. Until the French Revolution involved in the decorative design of the castles of Chantilly, Saint-Cloud and Bellevue. Specialized in flower and fruit painting on the advice of Gerardus van Spaendonck, D. v.a. very successful in Paris. 1793-1833 regularly represented in the salon there; also participates in the salons of Antwerp (1807, 1822), Ghent (1812), Brussels (1833) and The Hague (1839). 1796 Allocation to an apartment in the Louvre near Sauvage, Spaendonck and Pierre Joseph Redouté. In 1806 D. set up a studio in the Sorbonne.

He is very productive and achieves high prices for his paintings, the subject of which is repeated in the face of numerous orders. In the case of flower bouquets on a single-colored background, on the one hand it remains the fläm with its meticulous representation.

True to tradition, while the decorative elements are more typically French; Vases generally stand on marble trays. The main works include L'offrande à Flore (1799 in the Paris Salon, lost, known for contemporary engravings) and the counterpart La tombe de Julie (1804, Malmaison, MN du Château), both acquired by Empress Josephine for her gallery. D. also interprets some relig. Scenes. In his apartment he collected works by contemporary artists, e.g. Spaendonck, Christiaan van Pol and Balthasar Paul Ommeganck, as well as paintings from 17th and 18th centuries, so by Jan Davidsz. de Heem, Abraham Mignon, Martinus Speij, R.Ruys and v.a. Jan van Huysum. AWARDS: 1810 Gold Med. by Napoleon I, 1819 by Louis XVIII .; Honorary Med. by Leopold I. Members of the Academy of Antwerp and Amsterdam.

WORKS: AMIENS, Mus. de Picardy. AUXERRE, MAH. COMPIEGNE, castle. DIJON, MBA. FLORENCE, Uffizi Gallery. LILLE, MBA. LISBON, Mus. C.Gulbenkian. LYON, MBA. MALMAISON, MN du Château. PARIS, Louvre. ROUEN, MBA and de la Ceramique. VERSAILLES, Trianon castle.

EXHIBITIONS: 1974/75 Paris: De David à Delacroix / 1985/86 Brussels, Mus. d'Ixelles: 1770-1830. Autour du neo-classicisme en Belgique (K: M.Populaire).

PROVENANCE: noble French collection.

LITERATURE: Lexicons : Thieme / Becker, V.8, 1913. Benefit, 1999; Saur; Schidlof I, 1964; Hardouin-Fugier / Grafe, 1989; P./V. Berko, dict. van Belg. en Holl. bloemenschilders born tussen 1750 and 1880, Br. 1995; DPB II, 1995; DA VIII, 1996. - De Roosmalen, Not. ... vente ... décès, P. 1840; B. Lossky, BSHAF 1967 (1968), 123-139; N. Hubert, Apollo 106: 1977 (185); B. Velghe, Bull. Of MRBAB 38-40: 1989-91 (1-3) 38 ss .; Hardouin-Fugier / Grafe, 1992; E. Hardouin-Fugier / E. Graf, ..., 1996.

INSCRIPTION: unsigned.

TECHNIQUE: oil on canvas. Original frame.

MEASUREMENTS: unframed w 25 5/8" x h 31 7/8" (65 x 81 cm); framed w 25 1/4" x h 39 1/3" (84 x 100 cm).

CONDITION: very good, original canvas.