Offering of the day: A Fruit Still Life by the Acclaimed Dutch Painter Pieter Van Loo

 Pieter Van Loo (Haarlem 1731-1784)
Peaches and Grapes on a Table
Pencil, watercolor and pencil framing lines on paper
Paper size: 12” x 9 1/2”
Frame size: 21 3/4” x 19”
Signed l.l.: P: V: LOO.FE
Provenance: Anon. sale, Christie’s, Amsterdam, 25 November 1991, Lot 177 illustrated; Dutch
private collection
$28,000

    Pieter van Loo was born in Haarlem in the Low Countries and spent the remainder of his life there.   He was a member of the city’s Painters' Guild where he was officially registered as a ‘painter of flowers’ although he is also known to have designed tapestries for the Troost van Groningen factory. Van Loo’s most significant masterpiece is the manuscript for the Choix de Jacintes, a spectacular work dedicated to the depiction of the hyacinth, which he completed with Cornelis van Noorde (1731-1795) between 1765 and 1769.

    The present work ably shows the artist loose and painterly style, in which he conveys the lusciousness of the fruit with the minimum of brushstrokes.  The style of composition reveals the influence of such artists as Jan Van Huysum who specialized in oil paintings of fruit and flowers resting upon a ledge.

    Van Loo's watercolors can be seen in the collection of Museum Teyler (Haarlem), in Vienna’s Albertina, in the Museum of Brussels, the Museum Conde, Chantilly, and in Kupferstichkabinett Kiel.