Karl Wilhelm de Hamilton (Brussels 1668-1754 Augsburg)A forest floor still life with a snake, butterflies, snails and a grasshopper; and A forest floor still life with a lizard, butterflies and snails
a pair, oil on copper
36.1 x 27cm (14 3/16 x 10 5/8in). (2)注脚Provenance
Sale, Christie's, London, 9 July 2003, lot 56, where purchased by the present owners

Karl Wilhelm de Hamilton was known by the sobriquet, 'Thistle Hamilton', for one of the predominant features in his oeuvre. In his choice of subject-matter, he was greatly influenced by Otto Marseus van Schrieck (circa 1619-1678), who specialized in accurate depictions of reptiles and insects in forest floor settings. The compositions of both the present pair of paintings was repeated in a pair of oils on copper, 29.5 x 20.6 cm., sold in these rooms, 10 December, 2003, lot 2. The central group of leaves in the composition with the snake further recalls that found in one of a pair of works formerly in the Anton C.R. Dreesmann Collection, sold Christie's, 11 April 2002, lot 560 (for £146,750). Although the artist painted on canvas and on panel, it was on copper that he produced his finest works, with this support giving the pigments greater luminosity. In order to recreate the texture of moss, Hamilton is said to have used the imprint of his thumb, a technique also employed by van Schrieck and Rachel Ruysch.

Karl Wilhelm de Hamilton came from a family of artists working in the late 17th and early 18th centuries as court painters in central Europe, where they specialized in animal and still-life pictures. He was the third son of James de Hamilton (circa 1640-1720) who originated in Scotland and worked for most of his career in Brussels; Karl Wilhelm worked in Augsburg as the Court Painter to Bishop Sigismund von Pfalz-Neuberg and may possibly be identified as the Hamilton working for the court at Baden-Baden between 1699 and 1707; while his two brothers, Philipp Ferdinand (circa 1644-1750) and Johann Georg (1672-1737), both worked at the Imperial Court in Vienna.