Jacob Marrel

The actual painting is softer and less red and more green in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests. The single panel is flat and stable and bevelled on the left edge. Some tiny blemishes can be observed along the edges. A small retouched dent is visible in the upper centre, and there's a very tiny dent left of the tulip. Otherwise, the paint surface seems to be in good condition. A few very tiny retouchings can be observed in the ledge lower right. along the right edge and in the background centre left The paint surface is covered with a discoloured layer of varnish. The varnish layer fluoresces completely under ultra violet light. Offered in a plain fruit wood frame with a gilt inner border, in fair condition. (MW)
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This charming still life of a tulip, anemones and Lily-of-the-Valley animated with various insects was painted in 1634 when Marrel was only twenty years old, having just moved from Frankfurt to Utrecht. Whilst he had been a pupil of Georg Flegel (1566-1638) in Frankfurt since 1627,¹ in Utrecht he must have been clearly influenced by artists such as Ambrosius Bosschaert the Younger (1609-1645). See for example his painting in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg (inv. no. 10641), which shows a similar arrangement of flowers on a wooden ledge.² Besides being a flower painter, Marrel, who was also known by the Latinized form of his name: Marrellus, as the present signature confirms, was also recorded as an art dealer in Utrecht in 1646.³

 

1. F.G. Meijer, The Collection of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Paintings Bequeathed by Daisy Linda Ward, Zwolle 2003, p. 248.
2. See E. Gemar-Koeltzsch, Holländische Stillebenmaler om 17. Jahrhundert, vol. 2, Lingen 1995, p. 175, reproduced p. 176, no 52/12.
3. F.G. Meijer, op.cit., p. 248.