A Composition of Flower Studies including Carnations, Pincushion Flowers, Bouncing Bet, Mallow, Hollyhocks, African Marigold, Forget-me-Nots, Poppies and Double Poppies, African Daisies, Capucines, Geranuim, Roses and a Madonna Lily

Pierre Jacky was the first to recognize that this remarkably beautiful and subtle oil sketch of flowers is a rare nature study by the celebrated portrait painter Hyacinthe Rigaud (written correspondance), correctly comparing it to another very similar canvas in the Muse des Beaux-Arts, Dijon (Inv. no. J. 172). The present painting is executed with a greater translucency and fluidity of handling than the more nervously sketched Dijon floral composition--which is signed by Rigaud and dated '1720'--prompting Jacky to date the present painting considerably earlier, to circa 1690-1700.