François HABERT (active in France in the 1640s-1650s) - Lot 122

François HABERT (active in France in the 1640s-1650s) Playing Cards, Paper Box and Game on a Table François HABERT, 1640 Oil on canvas signed and dated lower left 'F. HABERT / 1649'. Bearing on the reverse a London shipping label and a stencil mark '77S TK' and an exhibition label in Bordeaux n°33 109 x 143 cm Old restoration Provenance : Anonymous wind, Paris, Palais Galliera (Mes Maurice Rheims, Laurin et Philippe Rheims), December 7, 1965, no. 157; Collection G. D., Paris. Bibliography: M. and F. Faré, La vie silencieuse en France. La nature morte au XVIIIe siècle, 1976, pp. 272-277; C. Wright, The French Painters of the Seventeenth Century, London, 1985, quoted p. 189; C. Salvi, D'après nature. La Nature morte en France au XVIIe siècle, Tournai, 2000, quoted p. 112 and p. 115, reproduced p. 113 (signed and dated 1643) E. ; Coatalem with the collaboration of F. Thiéblot, La nature morte française au XVIIème siècle, Dijon, 2014, reproduced p. 186. Exhibition: Nature Morte de Brueghel à Soutine, Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, May 5 - September 1, 1978, no. 33. Few archival documents have come down to us on the life of this painter of flowers and fruit. Probably of Flemish origin, he completed his apprenticeship in the Antwerp studio of Jan Davidsz de Heem before moving to Paris, where he is known to have been active around 1643-1652. He was probably a collaborator of Jean-Michel Picart, who, in his correspondence with Matthjis Musson, mentions his business dealings with "Monsieur Habert" and, consequently, as an art dealer. His works reveal a great sensitivity and iconographic variety, testifying to his proximity to the sober, elegant style of the painters of reality, notably Sébastien Stoskopff, and to Flemish inspiration, including that of Pieter van Boucle, who also lived in Paris. Various victuals are displayed on either side: on the right, a copper basin, a wooden tub with a pewter ewer in the center, and, on the left, a closed oval wood-chip box, common in 17th-century still lifes. They were used to store small objects such as shellfish or candied fruit. Above, we see a pie on a plate. On the entablature, in the center, two carps, fruit and vegetables, meat and game. To the left, playing cards and a lemon with its skin peeled off, symbolizing the passing of time. Expert Cabinet Eric Turquin