Flowers in a Basket and a Vase

1615

Jan Brueghel the Elder

Painter, Flemish, 1568 - 1625

A pile of flowers overflows a straw basket resting atop a long pink marble table against an inky black background in this horizontal still life painting. Light coming from behind us illuminates the flowers and crisscrossing green stems and leaves. Every petal and leaf, color gradation, and vein are visible among the flowers. These include tulips, anemones, columbines, and roses, and other flowers in butter yellow, coral orange, blush pink, pale blue, and white. Amid the flowers are two black and yellow bees, along with a tiny snail making its way down a narrow green frond. A small orange and black butterfly or moth perches at the top left of the picture, clinging to a bud atop a thin green stem. The basket, of yellow woven straw, is round, wide, and shallow with handles on either side. Smaller blooms are visible through the open sides. We look slightly down onto the table, which spans the width of the composition. Around the basket, a few stems of flowers have fallen onto the table, and a ladybug crawls across the tabletop near us. To the right side of the basket rests a small, green glass vase with looped handles. It holds a handful of tiny, delicate blooms in tones of daffodil yellow, sky blue, ruby red, and white. A blue-winged butterfly has alighted on one of them.

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Among Jan Brueghel the Elder's many talents was his ability to bring to life the visual splendor of the natural world. He was known as "Velvet Brueghel" for his ability to paint rich and delicate textures. His sensitive handling of paint, which ranged from thick impastos to thin glazes, created effervescent forms imbued with extraordinary naturalness. Each tulip, rose, columbine, anemone, and even little insect or butterfly comes alive under his brush, belying the very notion that this painting should be called a still life.

In this magnificent work, Brueghel pictures a profusion of fresh-cut flowers in a wicker basket as though they were just brought from the garden. A few of the finer specimens, including a rare multicolored tulip, have been carefully arranged in a glass vase. Brueghel's sumptuous array of flowers could never have existed in reality, however: tulips and columbines are spring blossoms, roses appear at the beginning of summer, and anemones bloom in the autumn. By depicting flowers from different times of the year, Brueghel expressed the fundamental theological concept that the blessings of God's creation were to be found in the abundance of the natural world. Accuracy was important in recording God's creations (the individual flowers), but equally important was an imaginative melding of the flowers from different season to celebrate the greatness of His munificence.

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

General Bruylandt, Brussels.[1] (sale, Galerie Paul Brandt, Amsterdam, 10 October 1967, no. 6); (Edward Speelman, Ltd., London); sold January 1968 to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1992 to NGA.
[1] According to information provided by the Speelman Gallery, a General Bruylandt of Brussels had previously owned the painting; see correspondence from Bevery Carter, secretary to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, dated 19 April 1995 (in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1991

  • Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1991, 48-49, color repro.

1995

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

1999

  • From Botany to Bouquets: Flowers in Northern Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999, no. 13, fig. 39.

Bibliography

1968

  • "Le Guide de l'Acheteur." Connaissance des Arts. 196 (1968): 115, repro.

1979

  • Ertz, Klaus. Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625): Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog. Cologne, 1979: 297-298, 606, no. 293, color repro.

1981

  • Ertz, Klaus. Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625). Cologne, 1981: 118, repro.

1982

  • Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn 1982: 102.

1984

  • Ertz, Klaus. Jan Breughel der Jüngere (1601-1678), die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog. Freren, 1984: 449.

  • Liedtke, Walter A. Flemish Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1984: 1:23.

1985

  • Hairs, Marie-Louise. The Flemish Flower Painters in the XVIIth Century. Translated by Eva Grzelak. Brussels, 1985: 39.

1996

  • Brenninkmeijer-de Rooij, Beatrijs. Roots of seventeenth-century Flower Painting: Miniatures, Plant Books, Paintings. Leiden, 1996: 83.

  • Yapou, Yonna. "Dutch Acquisitions in Washington." Apollo 144, no. 418 (December 1996): 20, repro.

1997

  • Breughel-Brueghel: Pieter Breughel der Jüngere-Jan Brueghel der Ältere. Exh. cat. Kultuurstiftung Ruhr, Villa Hügel, Essen; Kunsthistorisches Museums Wien; Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Anterp. Lingen, 1997: 286, repro.

1998

  • Hairs, Marie-Louise. Les peintres flamands de fleurs au XVIIe siècle: autour de Jan Brueghel de Velours, Daniel Seghers, Roelandt Saverij, Ambrosius Bosschaert l'Ancien, Jan van Kessel, Jacob van Es, Frans Snyders, Joris van Son et d'une soixantaine. 4th ed. Tournai, 1998: 47.

2000

  • Laird, Mark. "From Bouquets to Baskets." Antiques (June 2000): 937, repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 230, no. 182, color repro.

2005

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 18-20, color repro.

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: 28, fig. 14, 29.

  • Libby, Alexandra. “From Personal Treasures to Public Gifts: The Flemish Painting Collection at the National Gallery of Art.” In America and the Art of Flanders: Collecting Paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and their Circles, edited by Esmée Quodbach. The Frick Collection Studies in the History of Art Collecting in America 5. University Park, 2020: 140.

2022

  • Speelman, Anthony. A Tale of Two Monkeys: Adventures in the Art World. London, 2022: 6, 53-54, color fig. 16.

Inscriptions

lower right: BRUEGHEL 1615

Wikidata ID

Q20176940

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