(Antwerp 1631–1690/97 Naples)
Tulips, daffodils, roses and other flowers with various fruit and a silver vase,
oil on canvas, 72 x 95.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Christie’s, London, 9 December 1994, lot 7 (as Abraham Brueghel);
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 27 October 2010, lot 92 (as Abraham Brueghel);
Private European collection

Literature:
G. Bocchi, U. Bocchi, Pittori di Natura Morta a Roma. Artisti Stranieri 1630–1750, Viadana 2005, p. 131, illustrated p. 134, fig. AB.18 (as Abraham Brueghel)

The present painting dates to Abraham Brueghel’s Roman period. In the arrangement of the still-life on a rocky ledge and the compositional elements, Brueghel was influenced by Michelandelo del Campidoglio.

Abraham Brueghel was the most skilled and successful of Jan Brueghel II’s children and he adopted a highly decorative style, focusing on the material rendering of objects and nature. After his training with his father, Abraham moved to Rome where he asserted himself as one of the leading still-life painters in the city. Already by 1649 the inventory of one of his patrons, Antonio Ruffo, included nine floral works by the painter, then only eighteen years old. His highly decorative, still-life paintings crowded with flowers and fruits reveal the influence of artists that were his contemporaries, namely Mario Nuzzi and Michelangelo Cerquozzi, while they also display his northern origins in their composition and the precision of the details. Around 1675 Brueghel moved to Naples where he remained for the rest of his life.