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Lot Essay
Little is known about Dirck de Bray, whose existing painted oeuvre only spans the years 1651-80, although he was from a famous family of artists in Haarlem that included his father, Salomon (1597-1664) and his brothers Jan (c. 1627-97) and Joseph (died 1664). In 1651 he was an apprentice bookbinder and printer, and later became a prolific engraver and etcher, and was considered one of the greatest woodcut artists of his day. He worked for the Haarlem bookmaking firm, Enschede, where many of his blocks are preserved to this day. De Bray was, like the rest of his family, a Catholic and he eventually joined a monastery in Brabant.
The present painting is the earliest and largest work by the aritst, and represents one of only twelve other still lifes known by him today. Perhaps his best known work is the Still Life of Flowers in a glass Vase signed and dated 1671, in the Carter collection, Los Angeles (see the catalogue of the exhibition, A Mirror of Nature. Dutch Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter (catalogue by J. Walsh and C. Schneider), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, Oct. 22, 1992-Jan. 17, 1993, pp. 24-7, no. 6 and illustrated in color).
Another work, also signed and dated 1671, was sold at Christie's, London, June 21, 1968, lot 91 and is now in a private collection in the Netherlands (see the exhibition, op. cit., p. 26, fig. 2). A Still Life with Flowers in a Porcelain Bowl dated 1674 reuses the motif of pale marble slab that supports the still life in the present painting (ibid., p. 26, fig. 3).
It is hard to place de Bray's work in the context of his contemporaries, and the sources of his style are not at all obvious. All of the above mentioned panels share similar characteristics: eccentric compositions, a strong chiaroscuro, a warm tonality, and an independence from the conventions of floral still life painting of the period. Seventeenth century Dutch flower paintings are frequently thought to contain hidden meanings - especially symbols of vanitas. There is certainly an air of transcience that permeats all of de Bray's works, and one of his last works, a Still Life with Crucifix dated 1678 in the Provincial Overijssels Museum, Zwolle (ibid., p. 26, fig. 4), contains the most obvious of all moral messages.
The present painting is the earliest and largest work by the aritst, and represents one of only twelve other still lifes known by him today. Perhaps his best known work is the Still Life of Flowers in a glass Vase signed and dated 1671, in the Carter collection, Los Angeles (see the catalogue of the exhibition, A Mirror of Nature. Dutch Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter (catalogue by J. Walsh and C. Schneider), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, Oct. 22, 1992-Jan. 17, 1993, pp. 24-7, no. 6 and illustrated in color).
Another work, also signed and dated 1671, was sold at Christie's, London, June 21, 1968, lot 91 and is now in a private collection in the Netherlands (see the exhibition, op. cit., p. 26, fig. 2). A Still Life with Flowers in a Porcelain Bowl dated 1674 reuses the motif of pale marble slab that supports the still life in the present painting (ibid., p. 26, fig. 3).
It is hard to place de Bray's work in the context of his contemporaries, and the sources of his style are not at all obvious. All of the above mentioned panels share similar characteristics: eccentric compositions, a strong chiaroscuro, a warm tonality, and an independence from the conventions of floral still life painting of the period. Seventeenth century Dutch flower paintings are frequently thought to contain hidden meanings - especially symbols of vanitas. There is certainly an air of transcience that permeats all of de Bray's works, and one of his last works, a Still Life with Crucifix dated 1678 in the Provincial Overijssels Museum, Zwolle (ibid., p. 26, fig. 4), contains the most obvious of all moral messages.