Johannes Bosschaert (1606/08 Middelburg - 1628/29 Dordrecht (?), Still life with flowers and leaves, butterfly and lizard

Lot 1029. Johannes Bosschaert (1606/08 Middelburg - 1628/29 Dordrecht (?), Still life with flowers and leaves, butterfly and lizard. Oil on wood. 50.2 x 34.3 cm. Signed and dated lower right: I. Bosschaert 1624.Estimate: € 200,000 - € 250,000© Lempertz

Provenance: Private collection California. - Auction Butterfields 8.11.1995, Lot 779 (360,000 USD). - Richard Green, London (Tefaf 1996). - Konrad Bernheimer Munich (verso label). - German private collection.

Note: Johannes Bosschaert was the middle of the three sons of Ambrosius Bosschaert d. Ä, one of the most important early flower painters in the Netherlands. In terms of artistic quality, the sons' father was certainly unequaled. But John, who died young at the age of 23, is the one whose works have the strongest character. For this our outstandingly preserved picture is a good example. It is characterized by the precise, almost scientifically cool observation and reproduction of the motifs. In this case, it is a dark green glass vase with various flowers and leaves, under which a blue iris protrudes in the middle. She stands on a simple tabletop, on the left of which a lizard stretches and on the right a single tulip breaks the horizontal edge.

Johannes Bosschaert has not often dated his pictures, among them our 1624 created painting is one of the earliest.