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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Fred Meijer of the RKD for confirming the attribution on the basis of a transparency. He compares this unrecorded work to a pair of still lifes from a private collection, exhibited in 1992 (The Hague, Mauritshuis, Bouquets from the Golden Age, 1992, no. 25) and cites the Flowers in a vase (panel, 81.2 x 51.7 cm.), also dated 1635, in the Toledo Museum of Art (Inv. no. 53.85), as the possible pendant to the present picture.
Daniel Seghers was born in Antwerp, but after his father's death he was taken by his mother to live in Utrecht, where his artistic training began. In 1609 or 1610 he returned to Antwerp where he completed his training under Jan Brueghel I, before being accepted as an independent master in the local guild in 1611. Breughel is thought to have effected his reversion to the Catholic faith (he had been raised as a Protestant in Utrecht), and in 1614 he was admitted to the Jesuit Order, taking his final vows in 1625. Thereafter he was sent to the Jesuit Order in Rome, where he stayed until 1627 before returning to Antwerp where he remained for the rest of his life. Many of his signed pictures, including the present one, are inscribed Soc[ieta]tis Jesu, denoting his allegiance to the Jesuit Order, which received payment for his work. Seghers was already held in the highest regard for his flower painting during his own lifetime and his popularity is attested to by the existence of the artist's own inventory of 239 of his pictures (see W. Couvreur, 'Daniel Seghers' inventaris van door hem geschilderde bloemstukken', in Gentse Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis den de Oudheidkunde, XX, 1967, pp. 87-158).
Daniel Seghers was born in Antwerp, but after his father's death he was taken by his mother to live in Utrecht, where his artistic training began. In 1609 or 1610 he returned to Antwerp where he completed his training under Jan Brueghel I, before being accepted as an independent master in the local guild in 1611. Breughel is thought to have effected his reversion to the Catholic faith (he had been raised as a Protestant in Utrecht), and in 1614 he was admitted to the Jesuit Order, taking his final vows in 1625. Thereafter he was sent to the Jesuit Order in Rome, where he stayed until 1627 before returning to Antwerp where he remained for the rest of his life. Many of his signed pictures, including the present one, are inscribed Soc[ieta]tis Jesu, denoting his allegiance to the Jesuit Order, which received payment for his work. Seghers was already held in the highest regard for his flower painting during his own lifetime and his popularity is attested to by the existence of the artist's own inventory of 239 of his pictures (see W. Couvreur, 'Daniel Seghers' inventaris van door hem geschilderde bloemstukken', in Gentse Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis den de Oudheidkunde, XX, 1967, pp. 87-158).