6.4 Still-Life
1
Carl Wilhelm de Hamilton
Forest still life with foliage, a snake and lizard, butterflies and insects
Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, inv./cat.nr. A 114
2
Carl Wilhelm de Hamilton
Still life with a thistle, boletus, snail, lizard, butterflies and a bee in a mountainous landscape, last quarter 17th century
Cambridge (England), Fitzwilliam Museum, inv./cat.nr. PD.39-1975
3
Carl Wilhelm de Hamilton
Forest floor still life with a snake, snails and butterflies
Vienna, Zürich, private collection Johann Caspar Lavater
4
Carl Wilhelm de Hamilton
A forest floor still life with a lizard, snails and butterflies
Vienna, Zürich, private collection Johann Caspar Lavater
A typical example of a mixed Flemish-Dutch style can be seen in the works of Carl Wilhelm de Hamilton (1668-1754), a son of the Scottish-born painter Jacob [James] Hamilton. Carl Wilhelm became court painter to bishop Alexander Sigismund von der Pfalz-Neuburg. Occasionaly he painted still-lifes with thistles, herbs and snakes, just like Otto Marseus van Schrieck [1-5].1 Furthermore there are very decorative works by his hand that show clearly that he studied in Brussels. Maybe Hamilton is identical to the painter by the same name that was active at the court in Baden from 1699-1709. The elder Franz de Hamilton, whom we already encountered in Brandenburg and Hannover, also worked in Southern Germany.2 However, we don’t have to pay much attention to this member of the family, since the still-lifes Franz de Hamilton created at the end the century are more Flemish than Dutch in style.
Since Carl Wilhelm de Hamilton carried us into the 18th century, we can add Johann Falch (1687-1727). In a similar way as Hamilton, Falch made paintings with lizards, butterflies and thistles that are confusingly similar to works of Marseus von Schriek [6-8].3
5
Carl Wilhelm de Hamilton
Forest still life with foliage, a snake, a lizard, butterflies and insects
6
Johann Falch
Forest still life with flowering plants, lizard, snail and butterflies
7
Johann Falch
Forest still life with a snake, a lizard and other animals
In conjunction with still-life artists in Southern Germany, we also have to mention a mysterious (Johannes?) Fischer (between 1570/80-1643) from Augsburg, who once copied a painting of Willem Kalf and again imitated paintings of Pieter de Bloot [9-10].4 The same (?) Fischer also copied Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach; all in all he appears not to have been a very original artist.
The animal and still-life painter Franz Friedrich Franck (1627-1687) succeeded in creating a very attractive trompe-l’oeil with books, wherefore he deserves to be mentioned here [11-12].5
8
Johann Falch
Forest still life with flowering plant, lizard, snails and insects
Sint-Petersburg, Warsaw, private collection Jan Popławski
9
possibly Johannes Fischer after Pieter de Bloot
Christ in the house of Martha and Mary, after 1637
Munich, Alte Pinakothek
10
Pieter de Bloot
Christ in the house of Martha and Mary, dated 1637
Vienna, private collection Liechtenstein - The Princely Collections, inv./cat.nr. GE663
11
Franz Friedrich Franck
Still life with books, violin, violin bow and vanity symbols, dated 1663
Augsburg, Städtische Kunstsammlungen Augsburg, inv./cat.nr. 6130
12
Franz Friedrich Franck
Still-life with flute, bassoon and trumpet, dated 1663
Augsburg, Städtische Kunstsammlungen Augsburg, inv./cat.nr. 6131
Notes
1 [Gerson 1942/1983] A.o. in the museum in Lyon and in auctions.
2 [Van Leeuwen 2017] Carl Wilhelm possibly was a cousin of Franz de Hamilton. Most recent information on Carl Wilhem and Franz de Hamilton by S. Partsch in Saur 1992-, vol. 68 (2010), p. 466 and 482. The RKD prefers the spelling of Carl Wilhelm de Hamilton with a C, not a K, because of his monogram.
3 [Gerson 1942/1983] Paintings at the exhibition Copenhagen 1891, no. 51; auction Vienna 1912-11-12, no. 167; collection Popławski, Warsaw (Warsaw 1939, no. 34); Raudnitz Castle; auction Stockholm 1920-04-26, no. 48. [Van Leeuwen 2017] Of the works Gerson mentions we only could not retrieve the one in exhibition Copenhagen 1891 (no catalogue found) and the one in Raudnitz. Furthermore: paintings in Augsburg and Cologne (RKDimages 285231 and 285233). The painting in Cologne has a false signature of Otto Marseus van Schrieck and was formerly attributed to Van Schrieck and to Franz de Hamilton.
4 [Gerson 1942/1983] Paintings in Schleissheim, no. 3222-3224. [Van Leeuwen 2017] Although no. 3224 in Schleissheim was listed as by Fischer since 1885, the painting is given back to Willem Kalf in Giltaij/Van den Brink/Meijer 2006-2007, p. 161, no. A4, ill. 3 on p. 38 (RKDimages 203557). No. 3222 is a copy after a work by Pieter de Bloot in Vienna, Lichtenstein Museum (illustrated here). No. 3223 is not a copy after Pieter de Bloot, but after a painting by Bartholomeus Breenbergh in the same collection (RKDimages 285368 and 107787).
5 [Gerson 1942/1983] In Augsburg. Peltzer 1934, p. XIV. [Van Leeuwen 2017] Von Knorre/Krämer 1984, p. 76-77, fig. 46 (the pendant).