A Fruit Market

Snyders, Frans, after

Mezzotint print on paper of A Fruit Market, engraved by Richard Earlom (1743-1822) based on an intermediary drawing by Joseph Farington (1747-1821) and published by John Boydell (1719-1804) in London in 1775. It is a copy of a painting by Frans Snyders (1579-1657) then in the collection of Robert Walpole (coat of arms below) at Houghton Hall and now in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg (ГЭ-596). The production details lettered below indicate that the original painting was by both Snyders and Jan Boeckhorts (1604-1668). The painting no longer retains the Boeckhorts attribution but is now partly attributed to Jan Wildens (1586-1653). It was one of a series of four paintings by Snyders of market stalls, together with Game Stall, Greengrocery Stall and Fish Market. The series was produced between 1618 and 1621 on commission from the royal tax-collector Jacques van Ophem for his mansion in Brussels. It has been suggested that Synders intended the pictures to serve as allegories of the four elements with the Fruit Stall associated with the Sun (or Fire). A variety of fruit is presented on a table and in the surrounding baskets including grapes, apples, pears, figs, cherries, pomegranates, raspberries, melons, pumpkins and artichokes. The younger woman buys peaches from the saleswoman while a monkey pulls over a basket of fruit and a small dog barks at something outside the frame. For another market stall by Earlom after Snyders see Wep 4178.43.