The reverse of the panel is stamped with the coat-of-arms of the City of Antwerp

In this rare example of Petrus Willebeeck’s work, the artist depicted a pewter plate, laden with bunches of grapes, an orange, a partly peeled lemon and some oysters, placed near the corner of a wooden table.  A whole lemon rests on the table, together with a couple of citrus pips, and drops of water.  The arrangement of fruit and seafood is enhanced by a flourish of vine and citrus leaves and the rich green cloth that partly covers the table.  Standing in a niche in the background is a terrestrial globe.  The artist has taken great care to describe the surface textures of the various objects and fruits in his composition, from the pitted peel of the citrus fruit, to the smooth, white interior of the oyster shells and the reflective sheen of metal. 

The life of Petrus, or Peter, Willebeeck is largely shrouded in mystery.  What little biographical data we have is fragmentary.  Neither his place nor his date of birth is recorded, but some sources state that he was born in Antwerp in 1625[i].  He was the son of Peeter Willebeeck I, postman for Rotterdam, and his wife Agneta de Bailliu, and the brother of Balthasar Willebeeck (? – 1651), who also trained as a painter in Antwerp.  He is first recorded in Antwerp in 1632, when he became a pupil of Edwaert Snayers (1591-1661), although he was not accepted as a master in the Antwerp guild until fifteen years later in 1647/48, suggesting that he may have undertaken a period of travel in the meantime.  In 1648, he took Pieter Cousyn III (1630-1667), from The Hague, as a pupil. 

Willebeeck specialised in still-life painting.  His small oeuvre comprises still lives of fruit, Vanitas still lives, banquet pieces and pronkstilleven (sumptuous still lifes).  As was common practice in Antwerp at the time, he sometimes collaborated with other painters, who were specialists in other fields.  An example of such teamwork is a painting of a garland of fruit encircling a cartouche of the Virgin by Willebeeck’s Antwerp colleague Erasmus Quellinus II (1607-1678).[ii]  His only dated work is a fruit still life of 1647 representing a fruit garland surrounding a grisaille bust of Christ by another hand[iii]. 

Willebeeck belonged to the circle of painters who were influenced by the famous still-life painter Jan Davidsz de Heem (1601-1683/4).  Born in Utrecht, De Heem moved to Antwerp around 1634 and spent much of the rest of his life there apart from extended periods of time spent in Utrecht.  During the course of his career, he constantly explored new styles and techniques and developed a wide repertoire of still-life subjects.  De Heem was enormously successful and attracted numerous pupils and followers, both in the Northern and Southern Netherlands. 

After a brief period of activity around the mid-seventeenth century, Petrus Willebeeck seems to have fallen into obscurity. In recent times, art historians have identified a small body of his work, but many of his paintings are still likely languishing under misattributions to other better known Antwerp painters, for example, Joris Van Son (1623-1667), whose fruit pieces are close in style to those of Willebeeck.  The present painting, fully signed in bold capital letters, leaves us in no doubt as to its authorship and is therefore a key work in reconstructing his oeuvre.  Another similar still-life composition by Willebeeck featuring oysters, lemons and fruit in a basket, but in horizontal format, was with The Hague dealer Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder, in 2007[iv]. 

Other examples of Willebeeck’s work can be found in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam[v], the Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main[vi], and the Snijders & Rockox House, in Antwerp[vii].