A large still life with fruits, vegetables and a pheasant on a plinth by Georgius Jacobus Johannes van Os.
Van Os was a pupil to his father, Jan van Os, a painter of flowers and marine paintings. In 1812 he entered the Salon de Paris for the first time. In the following period he not only worked in Sèvre and Paris, but also in the Hague and Amsterdam. In Sèvres he worked for the famous pottery factory. After 1826 he settled definitively in Paris where he died in 1861. He is mainly known for his exquisite ‘natures mortes’.
The painting at hand, conceived in Paris, stood most likely on an easel next to a painting, of similar size and choice of subject, commissioned by Willem II of the Netherlands.
It is known that GJJ van Os, in 1837, sold two paintings of considerable size – a still life dedicated to hunting and a still life with fruits – to the Dutch king. The ‘hunting’ specimen ended up in the Pescatore Collection in 1850, and is dated 1836-37. This collection was subsequently donated to the city of Luxemburg.
The painting at hand carries the same two-year dating, and must therefore be painted in the same period. Apparently van Os was very satisfied with the result.
