Jan Brueghel the Elder

With Weinmüller, Munich, before 1960;
Swiss Private Collector;
From whom acquired by the present owner.

The following condition report has been provided by Alain Goldrach, 122 East 92nd St., New York, 212-517-5946, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The panel, which is extremely thin, is slightly bowed and uncradled. There are some old cracks in the support along the top edge at right with some associated retouches. The panel is coated with a rather dull and discolored varnish layer, which especially at the bottom of the picture appears to be totally oxidized and possibly separating from the paint layer. The bottom of the painting, near the table top and vase, are showing signs of flaking and there are even some flaking losses at the bottom left and bottom center. Very few retouches fluoresce under ultraviolet light, some at the top right and a few in center bottom in the vase. Otherwise the painting is pristine but in need of care.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Still Life with Tulips, Irises, Narcissi and Fritillaria in a Clay Vase is a significant addition to Jan Brueghel the Elder's oeuvre.  Although Klaus Ertz did not know of this painting when he published his 1979 monograph on the artist, he has now seen the work and plans to include it in the updated edition of his catalogue.¹ He dates it to 1607-08 on the basis of similarities with other flower pieces in Vienna (Ertz 164), Prague (Ertz 166, see fig. 1), Cambridge (Ertz 168) and a private collection in Switzerland (Ertz 169).²  Fred Meijer, who has also seen the painting, places it somewhat  later - 1609-10 - but concurs wholeheartedly with the attribution.³ 

Critics and collectors alike admired Jan Brueghel's flower pieces from their very inception, and their popularity has never waned. In analyzing his works, art historians have classified Brueghel's flower paintings on the basis of the containers the flowers are in, the size and number of flowers, the construction of the arrangement, etc. What is most striking in the end is the artist's extraordinary inventiveness and skill.  Although Brueghel sought the very rarest flowers, he uses certain common blooms - tulips, irises and roses - to anchor his bouquets. This probably reflects his patrons' wishes and the popularity of these flowers, as well as compositional considerations.  However, despite the repetition of motifs, each work has a remarkable freshness. 

Still Life with Tulips, Irises, Narcissi and Fritillaria can be compared, in terms of both composition and brushwork, with some of his most famous paintings. The modeled pottery vase, large blue iris at the upper left and blooming cyclamen on the left corner of the table ultimately derive from the Vienna Iris Bouquet (Ertz 164).  However, the proportions of the picture and the overall conception of the bouquet are closer to the Bouquet in a Clay Vase in Prague, Narodni Galerie (see fig 1).  Tulips and irises border the compositions at the top, descending in a line right to left.  This is echoed and balanced by the two large, almost spent roses that dominate the lower right and swing the eye back to the speckled fritillaria at the middle left edge.  Brueghel separates these large blooms and creates the rhythm of the composition by adding smaller flowers to the bouquet. In the present work, he uses fresh yellow and white narcissi to provide a glow of light in the upper center.  He also scatters insects throughout the painting, literally adding a bit of life to the subject.  Their bodies and wings provide glittering surfaces that contrast with the soft petals of the flowers.  Here butterflies rest on the lower stems of the composition, flanking the flowers, while above a golden wasp appears to look almost quizzically down on the huge bouquet below him.

A great deal has been written about the place of the flower piece in northern art, and it will undoubtedly continue to be a much debated subject.  Recently Alan Chong and Wouter Kloek have convincingly argued that flower pieces should not be seen as allegories of transience and filled with hidden meanings but as depictions of the natural world.⁴  They were not, however, simple copies from nature, but selected and composed by the artist himself.  In a letter of August 1606 to Cardinal Federico Borromeo, Brueghel writes of the Large Bouquet in Milan  (Ertz 143):

[in] the painting of the flowers all made from life in this picture, I have invested all my skill.  I do not believe that so many rare and different flowers have ever been painted before, nor finished with such diligence:  it will be a fine sight in the winter.  Some of the colors are very close to the real thing.⁵

His emphasis is on his own skill, the rarity and abundance of the works and realistic nature of the painting.  As Chong points out, this joy in his ability to copy nature reflects a contemporary view of nature and art that may ultimately derive from Erasmus:

Moreover, we are twice pleased when we see a painted flower competing with a living one.  In one we admire the artifice of nature, in the other the genius of the painter, in each the goodness of God.⁶

This outlook formed the basis of Kunst- und Wunderkammern, those collections of rare and wonderful objects, both natural and man-made, which were so popular in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  In their richness and multiplicity, they reflected the glory of God whether in the natural world or through the intermediary of his servant - man.  Brueghel's Still Life with Tulips, Irises, Narcissi and Fritillaria was a testament to the wonders of nature and Brueghel's astonishing skill, and a reflection of the divine presence in the earthly sphere.   

1  K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625).  Die Gemälde, mit kirtischem Oeuvrekatalog, Cologne 1979.
2  K. Ertz, in a written communication of August 9, 2004, to the present owner.
3  F. Meijer,  various written communications of December 2003 and August 2007.
4  A. Chong and W. Kloek,  Still-life Paintings from the Netherlands 1550-1720, Zwolle 1999.  See particularly Chong's essay, 'Contained Under the Name of Still Life:  The Associations of Still-Life Painting,' pp. 11-37.
5  B. Wieseman in A. Chong and W. Kloek, Op. cit., p. 110.
6  A. Chong in A. Chong and W. Kloek, Op. cit., p. 26.