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Oil on canvas Netherlands, 1930s Jan Sluyters (1881-1957) - Dutch painter Signed lower right 'Jan Sluyters' Total dimensions, framed: 75.5 x 85 cm Provenance: German private collection Classical, yet alienated still lives form an important part in Jan Sluyters' oeuvre - similar paintings fetch up to 120,000 euros at international auctions The oil painting 'Still Life with Skull, Fruits & Wine Glass' originates from one of the most prolific artists of the Netherlands, Jan Sluyters (also Sluijters). The still life shows fresh fruits (lemons), a skull and a wine glass - typical attributes of a vanitas still life. This motif was often painted during the second half of the 17th century, inviting the spectator to reflect on transience andon his own mortality. Sluyters used swirling blue, yellow and green tones with bluish and greenish shades. The light shines from the upper left onto the objects arranged on a white table cloth and provides the composition with a lightness contrasting the rather dark theme. The brushstrokes are vivid and distinct, leaving single brushstrokes visible. Due to this technique, the painting has a vibrant and sculptural quality to it. The oil painting is signed on the lower left 'Jan Sluyters'. The painting is mounted in a green velvet mat and elaborately worked, gilded wooden frame. The condition of the painting shows traces of age. It has been remounted; the canvas retored in three areas, visible at the back. Colour has chipped off in the corners of the canvas, however, these parts are covered by the frame. The dimensions of the stretcher are 50 x 60 cm, and the total dimensions, including the frame, are 75.5 x 85 cm. Jan Sluyters (1881-1957) The Dutch painter Jan Sluyters (also Sluijters) studied painting in his hometown Den Bosch, and then from 1901 on in Amsterdam together with Leo Gestel. Sluyters experimented with different styles, like Fauvism which he got to know during a study trip to France in 1906, as well as Cubism, until he finally found the Expressionism. In 1913, three of his works were chosen for the First German Autumn Salon (Erster deutscher Herbstsalon) in Berlin. Three years later, he became a member of the artists association Pulchri Studio in Den Haag. In 1920, he was admitted by the artists association Arti et Amicitae. In his paintings he focused on nudes, portraits, landscapes, and still lives. He is known to have broken with tradition and for developing a very personal style of his own. He exhibited some of his works for the first time in 1927 at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Works by Jan Sluyters can be found in important national museums of the Netherlands, like the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, the Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede, and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.