Still Life with Fruit, Wan-Li Porcelain, and Squirrel

Signed and dated lower right: Frans Snyders fecit 1616

Snyders made a handsome living in Antwerp as a painter of animals, hunting scenes, and still lifes. He also contributed these elements to paintings done by other artists, including Peter Paul Rubens. This exuberant and exceptionally well preserved work is painted on copper, a costly support whose smooth surface was ideal for Snyders’s rich coloristic effects, meticulous brushwork, and masterful evocation of varied surfaces and textures. [source]