Jan van Huysum (Amsterdam 1682-1749)

Poppies, hollyhock, morning glory, viola, daisies, sweet pea, marigolds and other flowers in a vase with a snail on a ledge

Details

Jan van Huysum (Amsterdam 1682-1749)
Poppies, hollyhock, morning glory, viola, daisies, sweet pea, marigolds and other flowers in a vase with a snail on a ledge
signed 'Jan Van Husum' (lower right)
oil on canvas
24 x 20.7/8 in. (63 x 53 cm.)

Provenance

Stichting Nederlandsch Kunstbezit, no. 2446.
with Edward Speelman, London, by whom included in the Confdration Internationale des Ngociants en Oeuvres d'Art (C.I.N.O.A.) with Richard Green, London, from whom purchased by the present owner in December 1979.

Literature

[K.R.], 'Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions', The Burlington Magazine, CXVI, no. 860, November 1974, p. 700, fig. 106.

Sale room notice

The second line of provenance should read:
With Edward Speelman, London, by whom inluded in the C.I.N.O.A.
Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, December 1974- 5 January 1975.

Lot Essay

An exceptional example of Jan van Huysum's early work, this picture is datable between the artist's earliest dated painting, a flower piece of 1706 in the Lille Museum (inv. no. 974), and another of 1714 in the Karlsruhe Kunsthalle (inv. no. 380). It is thus contemporary with van Huysum's well-known flower piece in the National Gallery, London (inv. no. 1001). The palette of soft, rather cool greens, bright blue and various soft pink tones is completely characteristic of this phase in the painter's development, as is the somewhat wavy signature with a rounded initial 'J'. The composition still betrays the influence of Jan's father, Justus van Huysum, whose preference for large, waxy-looking foliage is also a feature of Jan's early work.

Somewhat earlier is a flower piece in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (M.H. Grant, Jan van Huysum, Leigh-on-Sea, 1954, no. 208) and slightly later a bouquet in the Glasgow Art Gallery, no. 77 (ibid., no. 72) and another sold at Christie's, New York, 16 January 1992, lot 98. The three flowers at upper left in the latter are repeated from the present painting.

We are grateful to Fred Meijer for his help in the cataloguing of this picture.

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