Basket of Flowers

c. 1622

Balthasar van der Ast

Painter, Dutch, 1593/1594 - 1657

A basket overflowing with flowers sits on a table alongside fruit, berries, and seashells in this horizontal still life painting. The wide, low straw-colored basket has a woven base and more open, rib-like sides. The bouquet is made up of white and pink roses, a sky-blue iris and another with pale yellow and lavender-purple leaves. There are also a carnation striped with red and white, flame-orange poppies, and at least three tulips, including one that is scarlet red, a white tulip veined with red, and one with red petals streaked with yellow. Other flowers and dark green stems and leaves fill out the arrangement. The basket sits on a slate-gray tabletop that extends off both sides of the painting. Four shells sit to our left of the basket. These include a woodcock murex shell with a spiraling head with spikes and a long, spiny tail; an elongated, smooth conch shell with an ivory-white and brown calico surface; and light blue snail shell. Finally, closest to us, the largest, spiraling triton shell is occupied by a hermit crab. A sprig of glowing red berries sits at the front center of the composition. To our right, a cluster of fruit includes purple and green grapes on the vines, red cherries, a red plum, and two pieces of yellow and blush-pink fruit. The scene is lit from our left against a darkened background, so a dragonfly in the upper right corner is nearly lost in shadow. The artist signed the painting in the lower left corner, “B.vander.ast.”

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An inventory of 1632 confirms the presence of this rare set of pendant paintings by the still-life master Balthasar van der Ast in the collection of Princess Amalia van Solms, wife of Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange. The two works complement each other and reinforce the message that one should be grateful for the abundance and beauty of God’s creation. Both works feature a centrally placed wicker basket overflowing with a semicircular array of still-life objects, both natural and man-made, including fruit, flowers, shells, and exotic Wan-Li porcelain from China (referencing, respectively, the elements of earth, air, water, and fire).

Van der Ast was trained by his brother-in-law, the noted still-life painter Ambrosius Bosschaert (1573–1621). Like his mentor, Van der Ast created symmetrical compositions from meticulous preparatory drawings or watercolor studies made from life of blooming flowers, ripe fruits, and exotic shells—elements the artist was then able to combine, and recombine, in his paintings without needing to have the actual objects in front of him. Departing from his teacher’s penchant for crisp and vivid compositions, Van der Ast softened his contours, used more muted colors, and selectively highlighted the central core of his still lifes. He reinforced the dramatic effect by bringing his forms close to the picture plane and by compressing the space between the various elements. Van der Ast further enlivened the flower arrangement here with a dragonfly and a hermit crab emerging from its shell.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    painted surface: 17.8 x 23.5 cm (7 x 9 1/4 in.)
    overall (with additions): 18.4 x 24.4 cm (7 1/4 x 9 5/8 in.)
    framed: 38.4 x 43.8 x 3.2 cm (15 1/8 x 17 1/4 x 1 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1992.51.2

More About this Artwork

Verdant green fields roll in undulating waves back alongside a road in this horizontal landscape painting. The fields take up the left and center of the composition and are painted with thick, curling strokes of emerald, pea, and celery green, and corn yellow to suggest grasses and plants. The pale green road runs up along the right edge of the painting, and is layered with strokes and daubs in butter yellow, spring green, and faint blue. The fields and road meet the horizon line about halfway up the canvas, where an aquamarine-blue sky swirling with white and periwinkle-blue clouds fills the top half of the painting.

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Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Basket of Flowers, c. 1622

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

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably Princess Amalia van Solms [1602-1675], The Hague, by 1632.[1] (sale, Philippus van der Schley, Amsterdam, 16 February 1802 and days following, 1st day, no. 55 [with NGA 1992.51.1]); Levij Pakker.[2] Mrs. Beaumont, England; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 19 March 1906, no. 17 [with NGA 1992.51.1]); (Collings).[3] (Fritz Gerstel Gallery, Berlin); (his sale, Kunstsalon Keller & Reiner, Berlin, 21-22 January 1908, no. 36 [with NGA 1992.51.1]). (Kunsthandel Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam), c. 1938; sold to Dr. Hans Wetzlar, Amsterdam, by 1952;[4] (his sale, Sotheby Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 9 June 1977, no. 5 [with NGA 1992.51.1]); (John Mitchell & Son, London); sold November 1977 to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1992 to NGA.
[1] According to an inventory of the collection of the Prince of Orange and his wife, Amalia van Solms, made in August 1632.
[2] This sale was kindly brought to the attention of Arthur Wheelock, Jr., by Sam Segal; see his letter of 12 February 2009, in NGA curatorial files. The buyer is noted in the sale contents section of the Getty Provenance Index Databases, J. Paul Getty Trust (sale catalog N-23).
[3] The Mellon collection records (copy in NGA curatorial files) indicate that the seller at the 1906 sale was a "private English collection (? Mrs. Beaumont)." This information was kindly confirmed, and the buyer's name provided, by Lynda McLeod, Librarian, Christie's Archives, London, in her e-mail of 28 March 2013, in NGA curatorial files.
[4] According to information provided to Paul Mellon at the time of his acquisition (see NGA curatorial files). The painting was published in M.J. Friedländer's 1952 catalogue of the Wetzlar Collection, no. 3.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1955

  • Jubileumtentoonstelling, Kunsthandel Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, 1955, no. 1.

1960

  • La Nature Morte et son inspiration, Galerie André Weil, Paris, 1960, no. 2.

1998

  • A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 3, repro.

1999

  • From Botany to Bouquets: Flowers in Northern Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999, no. 2, fig. 35.

2015

  • Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2015-2016, no. 45b, repro.

Bibliography

1952

  • Friedländer, Max J. Collection Dr. H. Wetzlar. Amsterdam, 1952: 8, no. 3b, repro.

1955

  • Bol, Laurens J. "Een Middelburgse Brueghel-groep." Oud Holland 70 (1955): 146, 153.

  • Kunsthandel Gebr. Douwes. _Jubileumtentoonstelling, 1805-1955 _. Amsterdam, 1955: no. 1.

1960

  • Bol, Laurens J. The Bosschaert Dynasty: Painters of Flowers and Fruit. Translated by A.M. de Bruin-Cousins. Leigh-on-Sea, 1960: 38, 74, no. 38, pl. 39b, 102 n. 85.

1990

  • Segal, Sam. Flowers and Nature: Netherlandish Flower Painting of Four Centuries. Exh. cat. Nabio Museum of Art, Osaka; Tokyo Station Gallery; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Amstelveen and The Hague, 1990: 190, 191 n. 3 (where the reference to Bol 1960 gives an incorrect citation to "no. 32" that should be "no. 38").

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 5, 8, color repro. 7.

1997

  • Spicer, Joaneath A., and Lynn Federle Orr. Masters of Light: Dutch Painters in Utrecht during the Golden Age. Exh. cat. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore; National Gallery, London. New Haven, 1997: 362, fig. 1.

1998

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. A Collector's Cabinet. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1998: 65, no. 3, repro.

1999

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. From Botany to Bouquets: Flowers in Northern Art. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1999: 46-47, 83; no. 2, fig. 35.

2007

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr., and Michael Swicklik. "Behind the Veil: Restoration of a Dutch Marine Painting Offers a New Look at Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and History." National Gallery of Art Bulletin no. 37 (Fall 2007): 4, 5, fig. 6.

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: 39, fig. 2.

Inscriptions

lower left: .B.vander.ast...

Wikidata ID

Q19862869

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