(Antwerp 1601–1678)
A basket and a tazza with roses, tulips and lilies
oil on panel, 53.7 x 78.4 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection Mrs. H. Dietel;
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 21 March 1973, lot 19 (as Jan Brueghel I);
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 19 March 1975, lot 81 (as Jan Brueghel I);
with Alexander Gallery, London;
whence acquired by the previous owner around 1979;
European Private collection

We are grateful to Klaus Ertz for confirming the attribution of the present painting after examination of the painting in the original (written communication).

Ertz writes: “In this delicately and excellently painted flower piece, Jan Brueghel the Younger demonstrates his ability to match his father’s high level of quality, as hardly any other painter of his period could. The fact that the number of blossoms in the pictures of the son has been reduced constitutes a further development of his father’s art: while there are fewer blossoms, they are depicted as larger and are represented on an equal footing. In these paintings of the 1630s, and even more so in those of the 1640s, the artist gives preference to two-dimensionality over spatial illusion, concentrating on the powerful colour accents placed side by side and the carpet-like effect of the floral fabric. By now he had become an independent painter who masterfully understood how to combine tradition and new forms to create something innovative and autonomous”.

Ertz dates the present painting to the 1630s while making the following comparisons:

1. Jan Brueghel I and Jan Brueghel II, A Tazza with Flowers (sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 26 January 2006, lot 7);
2. Jan Brueghel I, Still Life with a Flower Basket and a Glass (National Gallery of Art, Washington, dated 1615);
3. Jan Brueghel II, Still Life with a Flower Basket and a Goblet (Szépmüveszéti Museum, Budapest);
4. Still Life with a Flower Basket and a Goblet (Galerie d’Art St. Honoré, Paris, 2007);
5. Flower Basket (sale, Christie’s, Amsterdam, 11 May 1994).