Jan Breughel I (Brussels 1586-1625 Antwerp), A still life of an ornamented stoneware jug holding a bouquet of roses and lilacs, with a wreath of many smaller flowers, including roses, carnations, cyclamen, narcissi, forget-me-nots and love-in-a-mist, lying on a table. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2012
signed 'BRVEGHEL' (lower left), oil on panel, 15¼ x 23¼ in. (38.9 x 59.2 cm.) - Lot 92. Estimate $500,000 - $700,000
Provenance: Dr. Karl Szeben, Amsterdam, from whom acquired by the following.
with Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam, 1939.
Hendrik Petrus Doodeheefver, Amsterdam, 1940.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 24 June 1959, lot 78 (£5,200 to L. Koetser).
with Leonard Koetser Gallery, London, 1959.
G.H. Dixon, London; Christie's, London, 29 June 1973, lot 82 (22,000 gns. to R. Green).
with Richard Green Gallery, London, 1973.
Private collection, England, by 1979, and by descent until 2002; Sotheby's, London, 10 July 2002, lot 14 (£292,650).
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's London, 5 July 2006, lot 32.
with David Koetser, Zurich, by whom sold to the present owner.
Literature: M.L. Hairs, Les peintres flamands de fleurs au XVIIè siècle, Paris and Brussels, 1955, p. 40.
M.L. Hairs, Les peintres flamands de fleurs au XVIIè siècle, Brussels, 1965, pp. 67, 361.
Brod Gallery, Jan Brueghel the Elder, exhibition catalogue, London, 1979, no. 35.
K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625), Cologne, 1979, pp. 297, 299, 532, footnote 393a, fig. 373, as 'Jan Brueghel the Younger'. K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Jüngere (1601-1678) Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren, 1984, pp. 455, 456, no. 290, fig. 290, as 'Jan Brueghel the Younger'.
M.L. Hairs, Les peintres flamands de fleurs au XVIIe siècle, Brussels, 1985, pp. 42, 46, 427, footnote 206, fig. 13.
S. Segal, Flowers and Nature, Amsterdam, 1990, p. 181, no. 29.
K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere: die Gemälde, III, pp. 973-975, no. 459, as 'Jan Brueghel I'.
Klaus Ertz included this work among the authentic paintings in his catalogue raisonné of Jan Breughel I from 2008-2010. Confirming this attribution are expert reports accompanying the painting by Fred Meijer and Sam Segal, who date it to around 1620.
Exhibited: London, Leonard Koetser Gallery, 2-30 November 1959, no. 18.
London, Brod Gallery, Jan Brueghel the Elder, 21 June-20 July 1979, no. 35.
Manchester, Manchester City Art Gallery, on loan, 1991-1998.
Notes: From the preeminent family of Antwerp painters, Jan Breughel I was known by the nicknames 'Flower,' 'Paradise,' and 'Velvet,' testaments to both his predilection for certain subjects and manners of painting. Returning home from a sojourn to Italy from 1589-1596, where he created works for Cardinal Federico Borromeo, Breughel joined the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp in 1597 and by 1608 was working as a court painter to Archdukes Albert and Isabella, Hapsburg regents of the Netherlands. Of the many subjects he painted, Breughel was particularly well known for his flower-pieces. He took them seriously, claiming to travel to study certain blooms and to work from life exclusively in spring and summer months; the present work contains blossoms from both indigenous and exotic sources.
While this painting appears in the catalogue of his son, Jan Breughel II (Ertz, op. cit., I, pp. 455-456, no. 290), Marie-Louise Hairs, Fred Meijer and Sam Segal more recently have attributed it to Jan Breughel I, dating the painting to around 1620 (private communication, 2002). In this period, Brueghel completed a number of works with similar compositions, including Flowers in a Basket and a Vase of 1615 now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (inv. no. 1992.51.7). In both works, the bright blue, yellow, pink, red and white blossoms, accompanied by thick greenery, produce a dramatic silhouette against the simple black background. This composition allows viewers to appreciate simultaneously the beauty of flowers as found in nature and the skill of the artist who so deftly recreated them.
Christie's . Old Master Paintings. 6 June 2012. New York, Rockefeller Plaza