A vanitas still life

Simon Renard de Saint-André, whose compositions are often confused with those by N.L. Peschier, was originally trained as a portrait painter, yet his particular talent was clearly for still lifes. He appears to have been influenced by his successful contemporaries Jacques Linard and Sebastien Stoskopff, and he was remarkably consistent in his use of motifs, including the skull, the small viol, the fluted silver candlestick and a musical score (all of which appear in the present work). A similar work can be found in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseilles (see M. Faré, Le Grand Siècle de la Nature Morte en France, Paris, I, p. 168, illustrated) and one was offered at Sotheby's, London, 11 December 2003, lot 211.