Vanitas Still Life

A near identical vanitas composition, distinguished primarily by different flowers, a recorder instead of a violin, and an ox-bone instead of an overturned hourglass, was on the London art market in 1977 as Cornelis van Spaendonck (1756-1840). Due to the floral subject-matter and the false "signature" inscribed at the lower left, the Morgan drawing was then attributed to Cornelis's older brother, Gerard van Spaendonck (1746-1822). However, the drawing is by the earlier master Herman Henstenburgh and comparable to a signed "Vanitas Still-life" in the Unicorno collection, The Hague (Inv. no. N 246). This is one of another near identical pair of memento mori images, with the skull turned in profile to the right; the related version, signed and dated 1698, is in the Westfries Museum, Hoorn (Inv. no. 00547/B 269a). In this case, the props (candle, overturned hourglass, and ox-bone) are also exactly the same, and only the flowers vary.