Joris van Son

Simulated Sculpted Head of a Woman in a Cartouche Decorated with Swags of Fruit

1655 - 1665

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: M. van de Laar / L. Akerlund, RMA, 28 juli 2013

Conservation

  • D. van der Kellen, 1885: the four wooden supports rejoined
  • H. Harnau, 1897: the support marouflaged
  • conservator unknown: wax-lined

Provenance

…; sale, dealers Dr P.A. Borger (Arnhem) (†), Mr. D.J.H. Joosten (Haarlem) (†), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 13 November 1882, no. 21 ('J.D.HEEM. Riches compositions de branches d’arbres fruitiers, couronnant des fragments d’architecture. Quatre pièces. Superbes morceaux d’un décor de salle à manger. Chaque fragment présente un tableau à part.'), fl. 600, to the museum;1Copy RKD, formerly owned by Victor de Stuers, with his sketch beside the entry of the fragments reassembled showing the head centre. The fragments were offered separately. Handwritten note by de Stuers and his note on the end-paper. NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 163, no. 171 (24 November 1882); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 164, no. 186 (16 January 1883); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 39, p. 323, no. 6 (23 January 1883.) on loan to the Muzieklyceum, Amsterdam, 1973-74

ObjectNumber: SK-A-763

The artist

Biography

Joris van Son (Antwerp 1623 - Antwerp 1667)

The still-life painter Joris van Son was baptized in the Antwerp Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk on 24 September 1623.2F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, p. 1119. The occupation of his father is not known but his mother was a Fourmenois and thus perhaps linked to the Antwerp painter and picture dealer Matthijs Musson (1598-1678). Van Son was enrolled as a master of the Antwerp guild of St Luke in 1643/44, without having been previously cited in the guild records as an apprentice.3P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76, II, p. 144. His manner clearly demonstrates the influence of the leading still-life painter in Antwerp at the time, Jan Davidsz de Heem, who had enrolled in the guild as a master in 1635/36, having left his native northern Netherlands where he was last recorded in 1632.4A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 105. Van Son’s earliest extant work is a banquet still life of 1645;5A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 186. he was to prove a versatile artist in his chosen specialty, painting fruit, flower, breakfast and vanitas pieces, as well as pronkstilleven and decorated cartouches in a manner adopted from Daniel Seghers as SK-A-763-766 below. Although the published documentation of the Mussin and Forchondt dealerships refer only very occasionally to Van Son’s work and few examples are listed in the Antwerp estate inventories of the seventeenth century published by Duverger, Cornelis de Bie in Het gulden cabinet of 1662 devotes over a page to him and reproduces his engraved portrait after Erasmus Quellinus II (1607-1678).6C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vrij schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermartste schilders, architecte, beldtowers ende plaetsnijders van deze eeuwe, Antwerp s.a. (1662), pp. 402-04. Further an example of his work was displayed in depictions of two Antwerp interiors of the 1650s.7A Cabinet of Pictures, The British Royal Collection Trust, C. White, The later Flemish Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London 2007, pp. 111-15, under Formentrou, and The Neercamer of a Patrician House, offered London (Christies), 4 April 1999, no. 55. Thus was indicated the esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries. Greindl listed 69 signed paintings and 35 attributed works in a career of just over two decades,8E. Greindl, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe siècle, Sterrebeek 1983 (ed. princ. 1956), pp. 381-82. and her list is not comprehensive. Van Son was buried on 25 June 1667 in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwkerk.9F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, p. 1121; the location given in P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76, II, p. 144.

REFERENCES
A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 186

Entry

Considering the degree of interference suffered by the present painting which had been cut up and acquired as nos. SK-763-766 and then transferred onto a single support, the still-life elements are well preserved although the paint of the cartouche surround has darkened and is barely visible and the feigned sculpted head is much repainted. The swags of fruit are evidently the work of Joris van Son (not Jan Frans van Son to whom last attributed in the 1976 museum catalogue), a designation confirmed by Meijer who dates their execution circa 1655-65.10E-mail kindly sent by Fred Meijer, 29 September 2016; he has added the scan to RKD images, no. 279717.

Erasmus Quellinus II (1607-1678) often introduced the figural element in the centre of cartouches embellished by Van Son;11J. de Bruyn, ‘Samenwerking van de Rubensepigoon Erasmus II Quellinus (1607-1678) en de vruchtenschilder Joris van Son (1623-1667)’, Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen 1979, pp. 281-94. but the handling of the admittedly damaged sculpted bust in the present painting seems not to be by him. Comparable are the busts of the goddess Ceres set in garlands of fruit by Frans Snijders, but these latter features have been dated some two decades earlier.12H. Robels, Frans Snyders, Stilleben- und Tiermaler, 1579-1657, Munich 1989, nos. 170 and 172 ; and on the former, see P. Sutton, Northern European Paintings in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, from the 16th through the 19th Century, coll. cat. Philadelphia 1990, pp. 299-301, no. 106. The socle in the example in Brussels is inscribed Ceres,13H. Pauwels (ed.), Catalogue inventaire de la peinture ancienne, Brussels (Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) 1984, p. 279, no. 3375. thus permitting the possible identification of the bust in the present work, although there are no discernible attributes.

Van Son, much influenced by Jan Davidsz de Heem, has here adopted a formula popularized by Daniel Seghers (1590-1661), who opted for a balanced composition of four swags decorating a cartouche on several occasions, for instance, in the painting of 1644 in the Museo Nacional del Prado.14M. Díaz Padrón, Museo del Prado: Catálogo de pinturas, 1: Escuela flamenca siglo XVII, 2 vols., Madrid 1975, I, p. 345, no. 1906 and II, p. 219, fig. 1906. Seghers, however, portrayed flowers rather than, as here, fruit – more Van Son’s speciality. Dated examples of Van Son’s use of the decorated cartouche surround are of 1657,15M. Díaz Padrón, Museo del Prado: Catálogo de pinturas, 1: Escuela flamenca siglo XVII, 2 vols., Madrid 1975, I, p. 377, no. 1776 and II, p. 247. 166216Berlin art market 1965, reproduction in the RKD. and 1665.17With a pendant of 166., O. Koester, Flemish Paintings, 1600-1800, coll. cat. Copenhagen (Statens Museum for Kunst) 2000, inv. no. KMsp 259/260, pp. 238-40, pls. 153, 154.

From the description in the 1882 sale catalogue it can be inferred that the original had been recently cut up – perhaps for the purpose of increasing the amount realized at the auction – as De Stuers was able to discern the feigned sculpted head centre, of which no mention was made. The practice of cutting up paintings for the purpose of adding value at sale has been the subject of a recent exhibition in the Museum Bredius, The Hague.18Linking Pieces, exh. cat. The Hague (Museum Bredius) 2016-2017, as kindly pointed out by Fred Meijer.

Gregory Martin, 2022

Literature

E. Greindl, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe siècle, Sterrebeek 1983 [ed. princ. 1956], p. 189 (as Jan Frans van Son)

Collection catalogues

1903, p. 248, no. 2212 (as Jan Frans van Son); 1911, p. 243, no. 2212; 1976, p. 517, no. A 736-A 766 (as attributed to Jan Frans van Son)

Citation

G. Martin, 2022, 'Joris van Son, Simulated Sculpted Head of a Woman in a Cartouche Decorated with Swags of Fruit, 1655 - 1665', in Flemish Paintings in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5471

(accessed 22 July 2025 13:11:12).

Footnotes

  • 1Copy RKD, formerly owned by Victor de Stuers, with his sketch beside the entry of the fragments reassembled showing the head centre. The fragments were offered separately. Handwritten note by de Stuers and his note on the end-paper. NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 163, no. 171 (24 November 1882); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 164, no. 186 (16 January 1883); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 39, p. 323, no. 6 (23 January 1883.)
  • 2F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, p. 1119.
  • 3P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76, II, p. 144.
  • 4A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 105.
  • 5A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 186.
  • 6C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vrij schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermartste schilders, architecte, beldtowers ende plaetsnijders van deze eeuwe, Antwerp s.a. (1662), pp. 402-04.
  • 7A Cabinet of Pictures, The British Royal Collection Trust, C. White, The later Flemish Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London 2007, pp. 111-15, under Formentrou, and The Neercamer of a Patrician House, offered London (Christies), 4 April 1999, no. 55.
  • 8E. Greindl, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe siècle, Sterrebeek 1983 (ed. princ. 1956), pp. 381-82.
  • 9F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, p. 1121; the location given in P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76, II, p. 144.
  • 10E-mail kindly sent by Fred Meijer, 29 September 2016; he has added the scan to RKD images, no. 279717.
  • 11J. de Bruyn, ‘Samenwerking van de Rubensepigoon Erasmus II Quellinus (1607-1678) en de vruchtenschilder Joris van Son (1623-1667)’, Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen 1979, pp. 281-94.
  • 12H. Robels, Frans Snyders, Stilleben- und Tiermaler, 1579-1657, Munich 1989, nos. 170 and 172 ; and on the former, see P. Sutton, Northern European Paintings in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, from the 16th through the 19th Century, coll. cat. Philadelphia 1990, pp. 299-301, no. 106.
  • 13H. Pauwels (ed.), Catalogue inventaire de la peinture ancienne, Brussels (Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) 1984, p. 279, no. 3375.
  • 14M. Díaz Padrón, Museo del Prado: Catálogo de pinturas, 1: Escuela flamenca siglo XVII, 2 vols., Madrid 1975, I, p. 345, no. 1906 and II, p. 219, fig. 1906.
  • 15M. Díaz Padrón, Museo del Prado: Catálogo de pinturas, 1: Escuela flamenca siglo XVII, 2 vols., Madrid 1975, I, p. 377, no. 1776 and II, p. 247.
  • 16Berlin art market 1965, reproduction in the RKD.
  • 17With a pendant of 166., O. Koester, Flemish Paintings, 1600-1800, coll. cat. Copenhagen (Statens Museum for Kunst) 2000, inv. no. KMsp 259/260, pp. 238-40, pls. 153, 154.
  • 18Linking Pieces, exh. cat. The Hague (Museum Bredius) 2016-2017, as kindly pointed out by Fred Meijer.