A blue and white bowl with a flaring rim is filled with small red strawberries, and the currants and cherries scattered around it are arranged along a wooden ledge or table in this horizontal still life painting. A single, ruby-red and white carnation with a short stem has been stuck down into the bowl at the back center. A few green strawberry leaves lie among the berries near the flower. A butterfly with honey-yellow and black wings perches on one leaf to our right. The top edge of the bowl’s rim is painted with geometric designs in muted azure blue between roughly oval-shaped medallions painted with stylized flowers. The base of the bowl is painted with fruit within a rounded medallion. To our left of the bowl, six vibrant red cherries and three stems of pearl-white currants sit on the table. To our right is another sprig of white currants and one of gleaming, scarlet-red currants. Between them is a trio of strawberry leaves and a pair of strawberries. A fly has landed on one of those berries, near the bottom center of the composition. Several water droplets glisten on the leaves and tabletop. The background is dark, earthen brown.

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   Jacob van Hulsdonck drew much of his artistic inspiration from Jan Breughel the Elder (1568–1625) in Antwerp and Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (1573–1621) in Middelburg, yet he painted with a clarity of form and composition quite different from either of these masters. This small and exquisite painting, executed on copper, captures the very best qualities of Van Hulsdonck's work. Set atop a plain wooden table, a beautifully articulated Wan-Li bowl is filled with wild strawberries and adorned by a single carnation, dramatically silhouetted against a dark background. This unexpected element adds tension to the visually simple yet luscious composition. The cherries, red and white currants, and random water droplets arrayed on the table form a pattern of circles that echo the round forms of the strawberries and the bowl. The droplets reinforce the still life's sense of fleeting freshness, and the transience of the moment is heightened by the presence of the delicate butterfly that has just alighted on a leaf and by the fly feasting on a berry. Though simple in its composition, this striking image captures the viewer's attention with its bold color contrasts and delicacy of execution.

   This work beautifully complements the other early 17th-century still lifes in the Dutch cabinet galleries, particularly the fruit and flower pendants by Balthasar van der Ast (1593/1594–1657), an artist greatly influenced by Hulsdonck's paintings.

 

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