FRANS SNYDERS, circle (1579 Antwerp 1657) Stately still life with scuffling cats. Oil on wood. 35 × 43.8 cm. Provenance: - Le Roy art dealership. - Auction Lempertz, Cologne, 17.5.1962 (attributed to Paul de Vos). - Collection Dr Alois Uphues, Geneva, 1974. - Heinz Kuckei Collection, Berlin. - By succession, European private collection. This scene of a fight between cats in the middle of a kitchen with bourgeois comforts demonstrates the brilliance with which Flemish painters gave still life its aristocratic status. The painter depicts a beautiful still life consisting of rich gold jewellery, silver cutlery, a bread basket containing peaches and a sash in a bowl. This composition is suddenly disturbed by the arrival of three angry cats. The unbalanced cats defy the weightlessness by grabbing the other by the throat, while a third observes the scene, spitting and ready to pounce. This scene is part of the Flemish tradition of depictions of fighting animals. The motif was also taken up by the Antwerp artists Paul de Vos (1596-1678) and Nicasius Bernaerts (1620-1678), among others. These objects marked with * (asterisk) are fully subject to VAT, i.e. VAT is charged on the hammer price plus premium. Buyers who present a legally stamped export declaration will be reimbursed the VAT.