Roses, a Tulip, Thistles, a Marigold and Forget-me-Nots in a glass Vase in a stone Niche, with a Caterpillar, Snails and a Butterfly nearby

Veerendael studied with his father in Antwerp, but it is his debt to the still life paintings of Jan Davidsz. de Heem that marks his works. Veerendael collaborated with de Heem on the Still Life of Flowers with a Crucifix in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (Inv. no. 568). He also worked with David Teniers the Younger, and Carstian Luyckx on another work from the 1670s in which he executed a vase of flowers, with the dead game by Luyckx at its foot, set in a tavern interior by Teniers (the Gemldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Inv. no. 1091). By comparison with both these works, and with the composition offered at Sotheby's, London, Dec. 4, 1997, lot 146, and a signed variant offered at Julius Bhler, Munich, Oct. 28, 1937, lot 115, the present work can be dated to the 1670s. Veerendael's work was notable throughout his life for his painstaking attention to detail; indeed, according to his eighteenth century biographer, J. Weyerman, Verendael sometimes took more than four days to finish a single flower (J. Weyerman, De Levensbeschryvingen der Nederlandse Konstschilders en Konstschilderessen, 1729, 3, pp. 234-6).