Lot 15: Rubens Peale (1784-1865)

Basket of Spring Flowers
oil on canvas laid down on panel
14 x 17 in. (35.6 x 43.2 cm.)
Painted circa 1854-58.

New York, Wickersham Gallery, American Flowers, May 23 - June 10, 1967, no. 24 (as Basket of Flowers).

Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York.
Acquired by the parents of the present owner, 1955.

PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR, NEW YORK

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Rubens Peale was a son of artist-naturalist, Charles Willson Peale. Basket of Spring Flowers demonstrates how Peale painted with great sensitivity of composition. The simplicity of the still life and the careful brushwork and attention to detail are indicative of the Peale family's approach to still life painting in the seventeenth and eighteenth Century.