This still-life is a particularly fine example of the carefully composed compositions that defined the career of the Flemish artist Alexander Coosemans. A specialist in this genre, Coosemans trained with Jan Davidsz. De Heem in the 1640s and became a master in the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp in 1645. Much of his career wa♚s spent in his hometown of Antwerp, apart from a few years in Italy between 1649-1651, during which time he was commissioned to paint still-life elements for decorative campaigns in several Palazzos in Rome and Genoa belonging to the Doria Pamphilj family.

Coosemans excelled in capturing different surface textures of objects and animals, as brilliantly illustrated in the present lot. Anchoജring the center of this crowded still-life is a bowl overflowing with grapes and an ear of corn, and surrounded by lemons and large, variegated leaves. To the left is a ripe pomegranate bursting with seeds, next to which is a small lizard, precariously perched on the edge of the stone ledge upon which all of the objects rest. Three drinking vessels rise from the center of the scene, forming a pleasing diagonal in both their height and placement in space. A delicate vine of leaves wraps around the glass roemer in whose delicate edges appears the reflection of a window, the source of the strong and warm light that bathes this scene. This light highlights the glistening edges of the gold ornamental cup and the thin body of the tall wine glass, which rises just above the tops of a gourd and some peaches resting on a ledge at right.  

We are grateful to Fred Meijer for endorsing the attribution of the present lot on the basis of dig𒅌ital photographs.  ဣ;