Jacob van Walscapelle

Private collection, Frankfurt.

Frankfurt-am-Main, Historisches Museum (inv. LG. 95:6), on loan, June 1995-2009 (as by Mignon);
Frankfurt-am-Main, Historisches Museum, Maria Sibylla Merian,1647-1710, Künstlerin und Naturforscherin, 1997, no. 23 (as by Mignon);
Haarle, Teylers Museum, Maria Sibylla Merian, 1647-1717, Kunstenares en Natuuronderzoekster, 14 March-31 May 1998, no. 23 (as by Mignon).

K. Wettengl, Maria Sibylla Merian,1647-1710, Künstlerin und Naturforscherin, exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt 1997, p. 47, no. 23, reproduced p. 49, as by Abraham Mignon (and Dutch ed., Maria Sibylla Merian 1647-1717) Kunstenares en Natuuronderzoekster, Haarlem 1998, with same pagination).

The canvas has an old relining which is still effective. The paint surface is clean and secure and in many parts untouched and well preserved. Some passages are a little flat, for example the orange flower centre left, whereas the vase and green leaf at right are in good condition. Some localised discoloured retouchings can be made, for example in the pink are in the centre. Inspection under UV light reveals that under the thick varnish. scattered retouchings in the background which are not intrusive, as well as some more concentrated retouchings in the marble ledge above and below the shell, and below the vase. These have been applied successfully and do not disrupt the readability of the painting with the naked eye. The flowers are mostly well preserved, with some strengthenings around the blue flower lower left to add definition as well as some localised retouchings here and there. Offered in a later wooden frame in good condition. Can hang now.
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Despite both the signature of Abraham Mignon and its having been published and exhibited as by him, Drs. Fred G. Meijer of the R.K.D., The Hague, who has inspected the painting at first hand, considers this flower piece to be by Jacob van Walscapelle, an artist born in Dordrecht in 1644. During the mid- to late-1660s Walscapelle's meticulous style, characterised by strongly lit and sharply defined flowers, comes extremely close to those of the Utrecht painter Jan Davidsz. de Heem and his pupil Abraham Mignon. So interchangeable is his style at this time with that of Mignon that their work has often been confused.