Lot 12797: Jan Van Huysom - A Flower Piece

This sumptuous, hand-colored mezzotint engraving is entitled A Flower Piece. The mezzotint was done by Richard Earlom (1743-1822) after the original art of Jan Van Huysom (1682-1749). It was published in London by John Boydell in 1781.

Jan Van Huysum was the "last of the great Dutch masters" (Mithcell) "It is the fate of some painters to be celebrated in their lifetime only and to be disregarded by later generations... Other painters pass their lives in obscurity only to be acclaimed by a succeeding century. A few, a very few, achieve a fame which is universal in their own day, never falters, and remains unchanged today. Jan van Huysum is among them. To Weyerman...Van Huysum was the 'phoenix of Flower Painters.' To Vertue, writing of six paintings he saw in an English collection in the 1740s, they were 'the most inimitable pictures that were ever seen.' In Van Huysum's lifetime the Kings of Poland and Prussia, the Elector of Saxony, Prince William of Hesse, the Dukes of Orleans and Mecklenburg, and Sir Robert Walpole were eager patrons. When Catherine the Great, thirty years after Van Huysum's death, wanted to buy the Walpole Collection, the greatest in England, a valuation was made by Benjamin West...on the evidence of saleroom results at the time he placed a fair valuation of 1200 pounds on the pair of Van Huysums...In the nineteenth century the Rothschilds and others were avid collectors...Today the very finest Van Huysums are not available...The only fair way to judge an artist is by assessing his success in what he set out to achieve. By such a yardstick Van Huysum is supremely successful...

"Jan, born at Amsterdam in 1682, was the eldest son and pupil of Justus van Huysum. Justus was the head of a family enterprise...with three younger sons assisting: Justus the younger, Jacob and Michiel. Their large-scale production met the demand for decorative flowerpieces...Jan did not choose to follow his father's example. From his marriage in 1704 until his death in 1749 Jan appears to have stayed in Amsterdam, but independent of the family. He jealously guarded his success...working in strict privacy that none might see the preparation of his pigments nor how he worked...He is said to have worked from the real flower and gone to Haarlem each summer to study specimens...Van Huysum possessed an unerring elegance of composition which enabled him to avoid the inbalance, the over-abundance that others risked...The artist left no word, no indication of how he really painted, no hint of his own philosophy. So the wondrous skills of Jan Van Huysum, the last of the great Dutch masters, leaves us as bemused as those of his predecessors a century and a half earlier." (Peter Mitchell, European Flower Painters, pp. 142-149)

Richard Earlom was one of the few engravers technically equipped to do justice to Van Huysum's work. Earlom "succeeded in inducing his father to place him under the tuition of Cipriani, and in 1765 became known to Alderman Boydell, who entertained so high an opinion of the young artist that he employed him to make drawings from the celebrated collection of pictures at Houghton, and now at St. Petersburg, for the engravers to work from. In 1757 he was awarded a premium by the Society of Arts. In the art of mezzotint engraving Earlom was his own instructor. His plates show great technical skill, especially those of flowers after Van Huysum, and are highly valued by the connoisseurs. They were produced in a style of engraving which till then had never been thought capable of representing the delicate texture of flowers... He engraved over sixty plates in mezzotint, among which are The Royal Academy, after Zoffany; Samuel Barrington, after Reynolds; Richard, viscount Fitzwilliam, after Howard; William Henry, duke of Gloucester, after Hamilton; Horatio, lord Nelson, after Beechey; William Pitt, after Dupont; the set of six plates of the Marriage à la Mode, after Hogarth; two flower pieces, after Huysum; Blacksmith's Shop, and the Forge, after Wright." (DNB)

John Boydell was a printseller and engraver. He and his nephew, Josiah, created fine engravings in England including scenes from Shakespeare, etchings by Francesco Bartolozzo after paintings by Guercino, and many other old master and landscape works. The also published this pair of mezzotint engravings after Van Huysum.


The lower left nomenclature reads:
Van Huysom Pinxit
Joseph Farington delint.

The center nomenclature reads:
John Boydell excudit 1778
A Flower Piece
In the Cabinet at Houghton
Published June 25th, 1778 by John Boydell Engraver in Cheapside London

The lower right nomenclature reads:
Richard Earlom Sculpsit.

Mat Size ~ 22 1/2" by 27 3/4"; Paper Size ~ 17" by 22 1/4"

Large Folio, Hand-colored Mezzotint Engraving in French Matting

1781

Overall Very Good. There is some light toning or faint mottling present in the margins. The color is generally muted but this appears to be the choice of the colorist not fading. There may be a minor imperfections to be expected with age. Please review the image carefully for condition and contact us with any questions.

A Flower Piece