Lot 155: NICOLAES VAN VERENDAEL ANTWERP 1640 - 1691

THE PROPERTY OF DAVID KOETSER GALLERY

FLOWERS IN A VASE

measurements note
29 3/4 by 24 3/4 in.; 75.5 by 63 cm.

signed lower left on the ledge N.V. Verendael f.

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Viscount Clifden, Lanhydrock, Bodmin, Cornwall;
With Leonard Koetser, London, 1967;
Private collection, Scotland, from whom purchased by David Koetser Gallery.

NOTE

Verendael's flower arrangements are among the most harmonious and life-like among the long and prolific tradition of still life painting that unfolded from the 16th century onwards. Verendael's works are difficult to date inasmuch as the artist remained faithful to the formulae he adopted early on in his career, including a preference for dark backgrounds, and his characteristic juxtaposition of red and pink. It is his white flowers, however, which have inspired some of the highest praise from scholars. For example, Peter Mitchell states "the petals are like the thinnest kind of tissue paper, finely crinkled, yet to employ the word paper is inadequate: a fine chiffon silk would be perhaps a fairer guide to the extraordinary fragile beauty of these whites" (see P. Mitchell, European Flower Painting, London 1973, p. 252). The finesse described by the author is perfectly exemplified in the present picture's three different varieties of white roses, which Verendael chose to place at the center of the composition, as if to suggest that they are the source of light the painting.