A study of fruits and spices from Surinam

The painting shows fruits and spices on a plain dark-brown surface onto which they cast shadows. Three numbers appear next to these, suggesting there was once an index that listed at least their names. The painting only survives as a fragment. What appears off-white today is not original to the work but likely a 19th or early 20th century addition. The original canvas has been mounted onto panel and gesso was filled in to raise the level of the surrounding areas to the same level as the painted canvas. The gesso was then painted this whitish color to both make obvious that it is a later addition as well as to provide a solution that is aesthetically sympathetic. As mentioned above, the painting is arguably a detailed and truthful visual record of fruit and spices Valkenburg encountered in Surinam, and either sold to Witsen or kept in Valkenburg’s studio to serve as a model for future compositions. The painting offered to TMA may have suffered its damage during transit back to Amsterdam. It may have also suffered damage along the right and bottom edge and been resized.