Poppies, tulips, morning glory and other flowers in a basket on a stone ledge

Nicolas Baudesson was the foremost French flower painter of the generation before Monnoyer. Félibien in his Entretiens sur les vies et les ouvrages des plus excellents peintres anciens et modernes, 1688, claimed that he was among those who had raised the reputation of flower painters 'parce que dans les choses qu'ils ont faites ils ont acquis un degré de perfection bien plus élevé que celui où sont parvenus beaucoup peintres qui font des tableaux d'histoire ou de portraits.' Comparable baskets of flowers by Baudesson in French private collections are published by M. Faré, Le Grand Siècle de la Nature Morte en France, Freiberg, 1974, pp. 285-6. We are grateful to Mr. Fred Meijer of the RKD for confirming the attribution to Nicolas Baudesson on the basis of a transparency.