Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder

With J.O. Leegenhoek, Paris, before 1956;
With Pieter de Boer, Amsterdam, 1956;
Sidney van den Bergh, Wassenaar, Netherlands;
Heinrich Becker collection, Dortmund, 1960-1967;
With H.M. Cramer, The Hague, 1974 (advertised in Antiek, August 1974) and before 1982;
Private collection, 1982;
With Johnny Van Haeften, London 1999;
David Koetser, 2003.

Laren, Singer Museum, Modernen van toen 1570-1630 : Vlaamse schilderkunst en haar invloed, 15 June - 1 September 1963, no. 25;
The Hague, Mauritshuis, Terugzien in bewondering, A collectors' choice, 19 February - 9 March 1982, no. 15.

L.J. Bol, The Bosschaert Dynasty, Painters of Flowers and Fruit, Leigh-on-Sea 1960, p. 64, cat. no. 30;
Singer Museum, Modernen van toen 1570-1630 : Vlaamse schilderkunst en haar invloed, exhibition catalogue, cat. no.  25, reproduced fig. 5.

The following condition report has been provided by Kirsten Younger (212-288-4370, kyounger@nyc.rr.com), an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The painting is in good condition overall. The copper support is set into a wood frame and is flat and stable. The flowers are generally in a good state of preservation including the tulips and the pink rose. In the tulip at the top of the composition there is a small paint loss along the right edge of the center petal and some slight thinness in the red and white petals. There are a few tiny paint losses and some slight thinness in the yellow flame tulip and in the smaller flowers. The wan-li vase with the painted blue pattern is well preserved. The dark green foliage is in good condition and there are a few areas of thinness in the lighter warm toned leaves and stems and in the cyclamen leaf. In the background there are areas of thinness and some small paint losses and fine scratches. There are small paint losses in the ledge along the bottom edge and in the shadow to the right of the vase. The caterpillar, bee and dragonfly are in good condition overall with thinness in some of the very fine details. The monogram appears to be well preserved but slightly thin. The varnish is clear and the surface gloss is even.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder was one of the foremost flower painters of the 17^th century and, alongside Jan Brueghel the Elder, Roelandt Savery and Jacques de Gheyn, was a primary innovator of the emerging genre.  This copper was published in 1960 by Lorens Bol (see Literature), whose studies of Bosschaert’s corpus led to a reevaluation of the artist's work which had fallen from favor in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.¹  Bol listed this painting among those dating from Bosschaert's Middelburg period, which lasted until circa 1615.  Fred Meijer meanwhile, having studied the painting firsthand, considers it to be slightly later in date, circa 1619, when the painter had settled in Utrecht.²  

Though born in Antwerp, Bosschaert moved in the 1580s with his family to Middelburg, capital of the Province of Zeeland, and a city celebrated for its botanical gardens.  The increase of international trade in the Low Countries led to the introduction of rare and exotic plants which were collected by the wealthy classes with a zeal that verged on mania. Inspired by these large botanical gardens, amateur flower gardens sprang up around Middelburg with citizens feverishly collecting in an attempt rival their neighbors.³  It was likely from these botanists and flower enthusiasts in Middelburg that Bosschaert received his first commissions.  The flower painting movement he established there would continue long after he left the city, into the middle of the century. 

The most coveted of flowers in this collecting obsession were tulips, whose more elaborately decorative varieties fetched extraordinary prices.  The tulip was likely imported originally from the Ottoman Empire in the mid-16th century and by the end of the century it had become highly sought after, prized for the intensity and variation of its colors.   In this elegant and simple arrangement, Bosschaert selected two variegated flame tulips to anchor the composition, one red and white and the other red and yellow.  As Bol notes, the same red and white flame tulip appears again in a signed copper in the Bredius Museum, The Hague (inv. no. 27-1946), while the cyclamen, daffodil and leaf are similar to those in a more elaborate composition now at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. no. 1940.2.15, fig. 1).⁴

Set against a plain, dark background, the colors of the flowers are intensified and the artist displays each flower to its best advantage, spacing them evenly in the vase.  The only distractions permitted are the bumblebee and dragonfly alighted fleetingly among the petals and the caterpillar crawling along the ledge.  Flower still lifes such as this one served as accurate documentation of new species and hybrids, but they also provided a lasting record of the colorful blooms to be enjoyed year round, long after the flowers themselves had withered and died.  While each of the flowers is painted with encyclopedic precision, their arrangement together is entirely imagined.  Polyanthus narcissus and daffodils flower early in the horticultural calendar, among the first to hail the start of spring, while roses typically bloom some months later, in early summer. 

More than mere decoration , embedded within these still lifes were subtle allusions and hidden meaning.  The wan-li vase for example is an allusion to flourishing trade with the East and the rare flowers of the wealth and prosperity it had brought.  The outer petals of the red and yellow tulip are just beginning to curl back and those of the rose are very slightly browning at their edges.  The very beginning of their decay reminds the viewer of the fragility of life, serving as a subtle memento mori, while the caterpillar in turn signifies renewal and rebirth.

    

1.  “Ambrosius Bosschaert (i)”, in The Dictionary of Art, J. Turner ed., vol. IV, London 1996, p. 467.
2.  Oral communication from Fred Meijer, 27 January 2015, upon firsthand inspection.
3.  L. Bol, under Literature, p. 15.
4.  Ibid., p. 64.