Tulips, peonies, daffodils and other flowers in a terracotta vase, on a stone ledge, with a bullfinch

Jan Frans Eliaerts ranks as one of the foremost successors of Jan van Huysum in the painting of lavish, meticulously drawn and modelled floral still-lifes. Recognised in his own day as a supreme technician, Eliaerts served as a professor at the institution of the Legion of Honour in France, exhibiting regularly at the Paris Salon between 1810 and 1848. The bouquets depicted in this and the following lot, while overwhelmingly joyous in their vibrant colour scheme and intertwining individual flowers, are carefully built-up compositions, the structure of each resolving itself with a focus on a single, delicate pink rose.