Still Life with a Wine Glass, Lemon Peel, Peaches, Grapes and Cherries on the Corner of a Partly Draped Wooden Table

This 1643 work belongs to de Heem's early Antwerp period, when he had recently relocated from Utrecht and was absorbing the grand compositional ambitions of the Flemish Baroque tradition while retaining his Dutch gift for precise material observation. The combination of wine glass, lemon peel, peaches, grapes, and cherries on a partially draped wooden table represents a classic ontbijtje or breakfast piece elevated into something more elaborate — the lemon peel half-uncoiled over the table's edge, a motif de Heem would develop throughout his career into a signature demonstration of technical bravura. The peeled lemon appears in Dutch and Flemish still life as both technical challenge (the spiral peel requiring confident brushwork) and Vanitas symbol (the yellow exterior promising sweetness but the fruit itself intensely sour). The wooden table and draped cloth establish a humble spatial reality against which the objects' beauty and transience register.

The lemon peel — spiraling off the table's edge in a continuous coil — is painted with bravura brushwork that follows the peel's surface turns and highlights in a single confident gesture. The wine glass demonstrates de Heem's mastery of transparency: thin paint layers allow the background to show through while a few precise white strokes establish the glass's rim and stem.