Ernst Stuven. Hamburg ca (1659/60)' Rotterdam. A Pair of Still Lives of Fruits and Flowers. After Stuven had

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1 Ernst Stuven Hamburg ca (1659/60)' Rotterdam A Pair of Still Lives of Fruits and Flowers Oil on canvas 38 x 33 cm (15 by 13 in.) Both signed: Ernst Stuven Provenance: Priv. Coll.. Arnhem, Netherlands Priv. Coll.. Koln, Germany 1994 Literature: Koltzsch (expected by 1995) Ernst Stuven was born in Germany, but on stylistic grounds he belongs to the Dutch school. Not only are the few surviving biographical data 2 proof that Stuven spent most of his life in Holland, but his work also clearly reflects the influence of the Dutch school, foremost from Amsterdam. Ernst Stuven was first trained in Hamburg by Georg Hainz. Hainz became a citizen of the Hanseatic city in 1668 and stayed there until at least Despite the proven fact that he was trained in Holland, 1 his masterpieces, especially the depiction of curio cabinets, differ in their pure descriptive style from paintings by his Dutch contemporaries. 4 After Stuven had moved to Holland in 1675 he was trained by Jan Vorhout. Abraham Mignon and Willem van Aelst. Willem van Aelst was one of the most influential still life painters from the second half of the seventeenth century. He had many pupils and followers. He created a new type of still life painting combining Baroque and Classical elements. He controlled his sumptuous still lives by using a diagonal compositional axis with the objects softly I it against a dark background. This strenghtened the rich quality and allowed the artist to be more objective and to distance himself from his work. This amalgamation of Classical and Baroque styles became a leading strategy for many still life painters in Holland, including Stuven. The number of Stuven's known and accepted works is small. Five still lifes with fruits are kept at the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, two of these are from the Ducal Collection in Schwerin. Some of his other works were kept in Arnhem, New York and Eastern Europe. 5 There is no reliable information about the number of his paintings on the market, but one may assume that it is small. It is not known why so few works have survived; Stuven was a restless person and he was even imprisoned for a while.* 1 1) Nagler(1847)p.34 Thieme-Becker (1938) p ) Stuven possibly moved to Holland in He probably spent his life in Rotterdam until his death in Langemeyer / Peters (1979) p. 15 4) Peltzer (1934) p. XI-XV11 5) G. Pauli, Kunsthalle zu Hamburg, Katalog deralten Meisier, Hamburg 1930, Inv.Nr , ; Thieme Becker, vol. 32. Leipzig p. 263 mentions Sibiu and Prague 222

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3 In Amsterdam Stuven taught Herman van der Mvn. Willem Grasdorp and later also Georg Muller, Georg Albert Maximilian. Alexander Strubensen. Dirk Visscher. Joachim Winteraeck and Albert Matsen. 7 The fact that Stuven maintained a workshop, indicates that he was well established. Nagler suspects that Stuven left Amsterdam for Rotterdam due to his lifestyle/ It is difficult to establish a more distinct chronology of Stuven's work, as he never dated his paintings. dated Furthermore Stuven incorporates the diagonal compositional scheme by placing fruits and leaves, as well as the flowers, at a slanted angle. In spite of William van Aelst's influence, manifested again in Stuven's treatment of light and shadow, the pair of still lifes reveal two unique characteristics. A Pair of Still Lives of Fruits and Flowers The still life with various fruits and leaves on a marble ledge is draped on the right with a red velvet cloth. A mouse, a fly and some insects animate the scene but also allude to a Vanitas. The still life of flowers on a marble ledge depicts an open pocket watch with a blue ribbon. The watch alludes to Vanitas as well as to Temperantia. The subject and composition of these two paintings are based on works by Van Aelst. Close comparisons can be found in paintings at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (pi. 1 f and at the Mauritshuis in The Hague."'The flowerpiece in Holland is dated Stuven adapts major parts of the composition from the Mauritshuis and Ashmolean paintings, e.g. the peach with the leaves in the fruitpiece and the pocketwatch in the flowerpiece. In some details Stuven closely resembles Van Aelst: e.g. the tulip is exactly the same as in Van Aelst's painting in Oxford PI. I Willem Van Aelst. Still Life with a Pocket Watch oil on canvas 56 x 45.5 cm (22 by 19 in.) signed and dated 1663 Ashmolean Museum. Oxford. cat.( 1961) W3 6) Schlie (1882) p. 612; Naglers KUnstler-Lexikon, vol. 17, Miinchen p describes Stuven more detailed: "The artist had the reputation of going easily over the top. his revolutionary spirit caused his imprisonment." 7) Thieme-Becker(1938) vol. 32. p ) Naglers KUnstler-Lexikon. vol. 17. Miinchen p. 529: "Banned from the city of Amsterdam he settled in Rotterdam, where he continued to work." 224

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5 These formal characteristics cause the present pictures to differ from the spacial atmospheric compositions of Van Aelst's paintings. On one hand the composition is filled with objects stretching to the borders with only a small area of the dark background remaining to suggest some of the depth known in Van Aelst's pictures. On the other hand Stuven pays special attention to the description of details. He subconsciously increases the number of pictorial elements depicted; examples including the blue ribbon of the pocket watch, the marble ledge or the leaves, are painted with such great detail that they cause the beholder's eye to pause. When Stuven focuses on those secondary elements by arranging the objects in a less spacious way and by placing them next to each other, he creates a more two-dimensional effect. These formal characteristics recall the painting of Hainz or Hinz. Consistent and standardized spelling was not yet established and the artist wrote his name as 'Hinz' or as 'Hainz'. Hainz also used the entire surface of the canvas to present as many objects as possible in his Curio Cabinet paintings (pi.2). 11 Faithful to the principle of the Curio Cabinet, he adds one object after another carefully respecting the single appearance of each object. At the same time he dedicates much attention to each particular detail, respecting it as an autonomous single object. This compositional concept represents the still life tradition of the first half of the seventeenth century, especially in Germany. 12 PI.2 Georg Hinz. Still Life with Curio Cabinet canvas 80 x 50 cm (34 by 21 in.) signed, Kunsthalle Hamburg Stuven, by subject and style, is part of the Dutch School, close to Willem van Aelst, but without denying his German origin. This symbiosis lends his oeuvre a strong sense of uniqueness. Erika S. Koltzsch (Translation from the German by EL) 9) Gelder (1950). no and 4 10) Broos(1988) inv. no. 2 I I) see: Kunsthalle Hamburg. Katalog der Alien Meister, Hamburg no ) see: Wolfgang Muller, Der Mater Georg Flegel anddie Anfange des Stillebens, Frankfurt a.m see: Claus Grimm. Stilleben, Stuttgart/Zurich pp. 201 ff. 226 Ernst Stuven (detail), cat. no. XL

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