Vase of Flowers

c. 1660

Jan Davidsz de Heem

Artist, Dutch, 1606 - 1684

A profusion of flowers in shades of white, orange, blue, and deep pink, with earthy-green leaves, burst from the narrow opening of a glass vase in this vertical still life painting. Shown against a dark brown background, the vase sits on a caramel-brown ledge. The flowers in the center of the arrangement draw the eye. On our right two tulips are streaked with cream white and dark pink. A flower above it, perhaps an anemone, has white ruffled petals with flame-red tips around a denim-blue center. A small snail in a rust-orange shell rests on a curling green leaf nearby. On our left is a partly opened tulip with scarlet-red streaks next to an ivory-white hydrangea with clusters of tiny petals. Trumpet-shaped, sea-blue morning glories and an amber-orange bloom surround the white hydrangea. The top third of the arrangement has a tall, white peony with feathery petals at the center. Queen Anne’s lace nestles alongside small blooms in muted purples and blues, sage-green peapods, and a carrot-orange flower that resembles a daisy. A slender stalk of wheat extends off the right side while another bends to meet the ledge. The lower third of the arrangement is filled with pink roses, more green pea pods, two closed, plum-purple flowers, and another feathery peony, this one crimson red, which droops to meet the ledge near the bottom right corner of the painting. A few blackberries lie on the ledge nearby. Leaves in various sizes and shades of green fill in among the blooms. More insects and creatures are scattered throughout the composition. For example, a caterpillar clings to the underside of the white peony at the top while a brown and black butterfly flies toward it. A bee sits on the white and red anemone, and a snail, salamander, and spider gather on the ledge to the left of the vase. Stems and the water line are visible within the glass vase, which swells from a narrow opening into a wide base. Panes of a window off to our left reflects in the belly of the vase. The artist signed the front face of the ledge near the lower left: “J.D. De Heem f.”

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The Dutch and Flemish took extraordinary delight in depictions of the natural world as an expression of God’s everlasting blessing. The flower paintings of Jan Davidsz de Heem celebrate the beauty of flora while at the same time exemplifying the concept of Ars longa, vita brevis (art is long, life is short) embodied in the Dutch still-life paintings of the seventeenth century. De Heem’s paintings also reflected the great interest in botany at that time, and this work includes exotic flowers and plants brought back from faraway places, such as the tulip, originally imported into Europe from Turkey in the 1550s.

De Heem was one of the most gifted, versatile, and influential still-life artists of his age. His refined technique allowed him to portray a great variety of textures that captured the very essence of the objects, including the petals of exotic flowers; long bent reeds of wheat; minute creatures such as butterflies, ants, snails, and caterpillars; and finally, the reflective surfaces of glass. In this work, De Heem creates a harmonious arrangement by balancing the colors and shapes of thirty-one types of flowers, vegetables, and grains. Despite the illusion of reality, this bouquet could have never actually existed, as the various flowers would have bloomed in different seasons. De Heem often included specific animals and flowers in his work for their symbolic meanings. Representing darkness and decay, a salamander stares hungrily at a spider, while a snail, a moth, and some ants crawl on the marble shelf. The memento mori (rememeber that you will die) images are counterbalanced by the wheat stalks symbolizing the Eucharist, and by the caterpillar and butterfly on the white poppy, which evoke redemption and resurrection.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 69.6 x 56.5 cm (27 3/8 x 22 1/4 in.)
    framed: 90.1 x 77.8 cm (35 1/2 x 30 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1961.6.1

More About this Artwork

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Vase of Flowers, c. 1660

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild [1808-1879], London; by inheritance to his son, Leopold de Rothschild [1845-1917]; by inheritance to his son, Lionel Nathan de Rothschild [1882-1942], Exbury, Hampshire; by inheritance to his son, Edmund Leopold de Rothschild [1916-2009], Exbury; sold 1947 to (Frank Partridge and Sons, London).[1] Mr. McIntosh, Bridge Allen, Scotland.[2] (William Hallsborough Gallery, London, 1958). (Fritz Nathan and Peter Nathan, Zurich, 1959); (Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York); purchased 17 May 1961 by NGA.
[1] The Rothschild provenance information was kindly provided by Michael Hall, curator to Edmund de Rothschild; see his "Rothschild Picture Provenances" from 1999 and letter of 27 February 2002, in NGA curatorial files, in which he cites relevant documents in The Rothschild Archive, London.
[2] The McIntosh name is provided by Nathan and Nathan; see their letter of 24 September 1959, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1958

  • Exhibition of Fine Paintings and Drawings of Four Centuries, William Hallsborough Gallery, London, 1958.

1991

  • Jan Davidsz. de Heem en zijn kring, Centraal Museum, Utrecht; Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, 1991, no. 30.

  • The Age of the Marvelous, Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 1991-1992, no. 157, repro.

1995

  • Dutch Cabinet Galleries, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1995-1996, no catalogue.

1998

  • A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 25.

1999

  • From Botany to Bouquets: Flowers in Northern Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999, no. 16, fig. 55.

2006

  • De verleiding van Flora: Jan van Huysum 1682-1749 (The Temptations of Flora: Jan van Huysum 1682-1749), Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2006-2007, no. P4, repro., as Flower Piece with White Opium Poppy and Peapods.

Bibliography

1958

  • Bury, Adrian. "Fine Paintings and Drawings of Four Centuries at the William Hallsborough Galleries." The Connoisseur 141, no. 569 (May 1958): 175-177.

  • Nicolson, Benedict. "Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions: London." The Burlington Magazine 100, no. 662 (May 1958): 186.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 198, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 66.

  • Pavière, Sydney H. Floral Art: Great Masters of Flower Painting. Leigh-on-Sea, 1965: 20, colorplate 7.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 58, repro.

1972

  • Nathan Fine Arts. Dr. Fritz Nathan und Dr. Peter Nathan, 1922-1972. Zürich, 1972: no. 10.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 172, repro.

1978

  • King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 42, pl. 20.

1982

  • Segal, Sam. A Flowery Past: A Survey of Dutch and Flemish Flower Painting from 1600 until the Present. Exh. cat. Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam; Noordbrabants Museum, 's-Hertogenbosch. Mijdrecht, 1982: 12-25.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 306, no. 403, color repro.

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1984: 18-19, color repro.

1985

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, 1985: 199, repro.

1988

  • Grimm, Claus. Stilleben: Die niederländischen und deutschen Meister. Stuttgart, 1988: 143.

1989

  • Meijer, Fred G. Stillevens uit de Gouden Eeuw. Exh. cat. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1989: no. 23.

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. "Still Life: Its Visual Appeal and Theoretical Status in the Seventeenth Century." In Still Lifes of the Golden Age: Northern European Paintings from the Heinz Family Collection. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. and Ingvar Bergström. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Washington, 1989: 14-15.

1991

  • The Age of the Marvelous. Exh. cat. Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 1991-1992: 381, no. 157, repro.

  • Segal, Sam. Jan Davidsz de Heem en zijn kring. Exh. cat. Centraal Museum, Utrecht; Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig. The Hague, 1991: no. 30.

  • Segal, Sam. Jan Davidsz de Heem und sein Kreis. Exh. cat. Centraal Museum, Utrecht; Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig. Braunschweig, 1991: no. 30.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 127, repro.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 103-106, color repro. 105.

1998

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. A Collector's Cabinet. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1998: 66, no. 25.

1999

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. From Botany to Bouquets: Flowers in Northern Art. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1999: 61-63, no. 16, fig. 55.

2002

  • Ebert-Schifferer, Sybille. Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil painting. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2002: 84, fig. 6.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 190-191, no. 152, color repro.

2006

  • Segal, Sam, Mariël Ellens, and Joris Dik. De verleiding van Flora: Jan van Huysum, 1682-1749. Exh. cat. Museum het Prinsenhof, Delft; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Zwolle, 2006: 118-119, no. 4, repro.

2007

  • Segal, Sam. The Temptations of Flora: Jan van Huysum, 1682-1749. Translated by Beverly Jackson. Exh. cat. Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Zwolle, 2007: 118-119, no. 4, repro.

  • Meijer, F. G. "Exhibition Reviews: The 'Temptations of Flora': Jan van Huysum (1682-1749)." Burlington Magazine 149, no. 1247 (2007): 134-135.

2012

  • Paul, Tanya, et al. Elegance and Refinement: The still-life paintings of Willem van Aelst. Exh. cat. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 2012: 42-43, fig. 7.

2020

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Clouds, ice, and Bounty: The Lee and Juliet Folger Collection of Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2020: 26, fig. 10, 27.

Inscriptions

lower left on parapet: J.D. De Heem f.

Wikidata ID

Q20177562

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