Jacob Marrel

Though born in Germany, Jacob Marrel spent most of his career in The Netherlands, arriving in Utrecht in 1632, just before the tulipomania.  He is best known for his fine watercolours of tulips, on vellum and paper, most of which must originally have been included in tulpenboeken, books of watercolour depictions of special tulips which rapidly became immensely sought-after as the tulip craze spread through the country.¹  Of all the flower watercolours produced at the time of the tulipomania, Marrel's are among the very finest, and large sheets, such as this, rarely appear on the market.  Of particular interest is the fact that the drawing is unfinished, giving rare insight into Marrel's working method, which clearly involved painting the flower head before the stem.

1. For another example, and further information, see: S. Alsteens and F. Spira, Dürer and Beyond, Central European Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1400-1700, exhib. cat., New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012, pp. 198-200, no. 90