(Antwerp 1601–1678)
A bowl with tulips, roses and narcissi,
oil on panel, 48 x 62 cm, framed

We are grateful to Dr. Klaus Ertz for confirming the authenticity of the present painting. A written certificate is available (January 2014).

On a table rendered in diffuse darkness, Brueghel has placed a bowl decorated with a honeycomb pattern and containing a colourful bouquet of elegantly arranged flowers. In terms of style, Dr. Ertz compares the present painting to Basket of Flowers in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (inv. no. 67.187.58) and to Still Life of Flowers in a Porcelain Bowl, presented in the Galerie d’Art Saint Honoré in Paris in 1988.

A date of the late 1630s has been suggested by Dr. Ertz for this work. At this time, the style of Jan Breughel the Younger began to diverge more and more distinctly from that of his father. The present composition is based on prototypes by Jan Brueghel the Elder, such as Bowl of Flowers in the Museo del Prado, Madrid (inv. no. 1422). As Ertz points out, the compositional types of a simple bowl or solitary basket of flowers brought forth the most natural and liberally painted still lifes created by Jan Brueghel the Younger. In contrast to the bowls of flowers accompanied by tazzas and glasses, which alluded to the contemporary taste for chambers of curiosities, the composition of the present painting is striking for its simplicity and naturalness. Ertz also compares it to the following works by Jan Brueghel II, the Flowers in an Earthenware Bowl (Dorotheum, Vienna, 13 April 2011, 1630s) and two Bowls of Flowers (Galerie d’Art Saint Honoré, Paris, 1988, 1630s and Galerie de Jonckheere, Paris, 2000). Ertz: “The brushwork, less detailed, more generous, and much more painterly than the one in his father’s flower paintings [...] is a secure sign for a late date of execution and in my opinion points towards the late 1630s.”