Cornelis van der Meulen

[5] It is possible that he traveled to Italy and spent time in Rome since his Vanitas still life (Sotheby's sale of 10 May 2019, London, lot 287) includes a statuette of Saint Susanna, which is based on a sculpture by the Flemish sculptor François Duquesnoy.

[2] Van der Meulen's known oeuvre consists of a limited number of works, most of which were created during his stay in Sweden and are kept in Swedish museums and collections.

He was in particular one of the first to paint so-called quod‐libet still‐lifes, which are illusionistically rendered wooden surfaces on which various disparate objects are pinned by means of a ribbon.

Here he created a quod-libet still‐life commissioned by the burgesses of Stockholm as a gift to Claes Rålamb, the governor of the city.

It is a quod-libet composition of a traditional kind in which a collection of letters, drawings and cutlery is scattered over a board wall.

A miniature hanging on the board from a pink silk ribbon contains a women's portrait in profile in an oval.

This meaning is conveyed in these still lifes through the use of stock symbols, which reference the transience of things and, in particular, the futility of earthly wealth: a skull, soap bubbles, candles, empty glasses, wilting flowers, insects, smoke, watches, mirrors, books, hourglasses and musical instruments, various expensive or exclusive objects such as jewellery and rare shells.

[8][9] While most of these symbols reference the transience of life and death (soap bubbles, candles, skulls) and human pursuits (scientific instruments, music, books, etc.

), some carry a dual meaning: a rose refers as much to the brevity of living things as it is a symbol of the resurrection of Christ and thus eternal life.

[11] Two extraordinary vanitas still lifes are the portraits of Ulrik and Gustav both princes of Sweden and sons of King Karl XI, who had died as toddlers.

Van der Meulen incorporated them using a trompe-l'œil effect into the two vanitas still life paintings which were then hung in their grandmother's prayer room.

[12] Van der Meulen has added vanitas symbols to the bust portraits (books, a skull with laurel leaves, a seashell, a broken rose and a soap bubble).

[13] The contemporary fame of van der Meulen as a vanitas painter seems to be confirmed by the fact that the Delft painter Johannes Vermeer is believed to have used a vanitas still life with a violin by van der Meulen's hand in the background of his A Lady Writing a Letter.