A basket with flowers in a stone niche, with a monkey and a butterfly; and A basket with flowers in a stone niche, with a barking dog and a bird

Although also active as a baker (as were his teacher, Johannes Bronckhorst, and his son, Antony Henstenburgh), Herman Henstenburgh was a prolific artist, specializing in depictions of insects and colourful still-lifes such as those presented here, usually executed with bodycolour on vellum, and often signed, either in full, as here, or with his monogram. The composition with the monkey was also used by Henstenburgh in the likewise signed work of similar size, though with substantial differences in the flowers, sold at Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 2 November 2004, lot 176. The motif of the dog barking at a bird resting above a basket of flowers appears in reverse in a gouache, also signed and dated 1698, at the Westfries Museum, Hoorn (inv. 50400; A.M. Zaal, Herman Henstenburgh (1667-1726). Hoorns schilder en pasteibakker, exhib. cat., Hoorn, Westfries Museum, 1991, unpaginated, cover ill.).