Workshop of Jan Brueghel the Younger (Antwerp 1601-1678)


An extensive bouquet of mixed spring and summer flowers in a wooden tub beside a squirrel oil on panel106.2 x 75.6cm (41 13/16 x 29 3/4in).
|ProvenanceWith Kunsthandel Van Diemen, Amsterdam With Walter Paech, Amsterdam, 1936 (his catalogue as by Jan Brueghel I)With the Schlichter Gallery, London, 1937Private Collection, Middleton Park, Middleton Stoney, Oxfordshire, since at least 1955 LiteratureThe Illustrated London News, 10 April 1937, p. 34 (as by Jan Brueghel 'de velours')The present composition would appear to be of equal merit to two other known versions: a smaller version that was offered as Jan Brueghel II by Sotheby's Monaco, 2 July 1993, lot 79, on panel, 64.5 x 49.5 cm.; and a version at Musée des Beaux Arts, Strasbourg (traditionally described as Jan Brueghel the Elder). The present work differs from the latter in particular with the incorporation of the squirrel, lower left, and the iris, amaryllis and lilies in the place of a white rose, top left. A lesser quality copy which combined elements of both compositions was offered at Marc-Arthur Kohn, Paris, 10 June 1997, lot 10. While the quality of the present work is comparable to a number of impressive compositions on this scale which had traditionally been attributed to Jan Brueghel the Younger, current scholarship now takes a more cautious approach to the output of this artist's studio from which the extent of the master's participation cannot be known with certainty in those works which are not signed. The unusually large size is comparable to the most ambitious and monumental productions of Jan Brueghel the Younger's workshop, such as the still life of flowers in a sculpted vase, on panel, 123.2 x 94 cm., which was offered at Christie's, 10 December, 2012, lot 20. We are grateful to Fred Meijer for his assistance in the cataloguing of this work.