Anthony Claesz.

With Galerie d'Art Saint-Honoré, Paris, 2004, inv. no. 49;

From whom acquired by the father of the present owners, 3 September 2007;

Thence by descent.

This exuberant still life is one of the earliest works, and certainly the largest and finest, by the rare early flower painter Anthony Claesz. Claesz. was strongly influenced by the revolutionary examples of Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder from Middelburg – the form of whose monogram (ultimately derived from Albrecht Dürer's) he replicated – and Bosschaert’s nephew and pupil, Balthasar van der Ast, with whom Claesz. is certainly known to have had contact and with whom he may even have served an apprenticeship in Utrecht. Claesz., however, was the first artist to produce such works in the city of Amsterdam. His known painted œuvre is small – numbering only around fifteen pictures – almost all of which are signed and dated, from 1622 through the 1640s; he also drew tulips for Tulip Books, one example of which is dated 1641. The early date of 1628 on this panel demonstrates that by the age of just twenty-one, Claesz. was already a highly accomplished artist, responding to robust and enthusiastic demand from the Amsterdam market for works that reflected the rapid growth of prosperity and global trade.

This grand floral arrangement sets the tone for many of Claesz.'s later works, in the oval shape of the composition, the vast number of stems improbably contained within a glass vase, and the bright, but limited colour palette, somewhat dominated by reds. Claesz. also appears to have favoured, in his early works at least, a prominent white lily to crown his floral arrangements – see, for example, the painting signed and dated 1632, formerly with Gebr. Douwes Fine Art, Amsterdam.¹ Claesz.'s earlier paintings owe more to Bosschaert's manner in the precision of drawing and bright colours. Later, his paintings from the 1640s are executed with more thinly applied paint, increased chiaroscuro, and a slightly more sober tonality, invariably set against a brown background – almost to the point of monochromism; his later paintings also tend to be smaller and more compact. His last known work, a fruit still life, is dated 1649 (the year of his death),² by which time his paintings appear more akin to those of the Haarlem painter, Hans Bollongier, and the German artist active in Utrecht, Jacob Marrel.

It was previously thought that there existed two Amsterdam flower painters called Anthony Claesz. – from the same family, but not father and son – nicknamed the Elder and the Younger, but it is now generally recognised that there was but one artist of that name, whose style evolved during the course of his career. Claesz. also appears to have changed the form of his signature by the late 1630s, abandoning the Dürer–Bosschaert-style of monogram for a fuller rendition of his name. 

¹ Oil on panel, 88 x 65 cm.; see E. Gemar-Koeltzsch, Holländische Stillebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert, Lingen 1995, vol. I, p. 225, no. 75/1, reproduced p. 223.

² Oil on panel, 57 x 107 cm.; sale, Zurich, Koller, 18 June 1985, lot 5015.