Scholarly Article

Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Flowers in a Vase, c. 1700

Part of Online Edition: Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

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A profusion of flowers mostly in ruby red, bright white, and flamingo pink are gathered in a bronze-colored urn, set on a stone ledge against a dark background in this vertical still life painting. A band of flowers reaching from the lower left to the upper right draw the eye, and are made up of a pink rose at the bottom under a white rose, a white-and-red streaked tulip, and a crimson-red poppy near the upper right. Other flowers include a sprig of pale, nearly white lilac to the left, sapphire-blue morning glories, golden stalks of wheat, and green leaves interspersed throughout. The urn has a fluted, flaring foot. Upon closer inspection we find that the foot must belong to a much larger vessel, for a terracotta-colored person reclining next to a stylized fish emerges from behind the flowers at the upper left. An ivory-white butterfly with an orange spot on each wing alights on the tulip, whose petals are spread wide. A snail with a marmalade-orange shell with a thin, shiny, black spiral crawls along the ledge to our right, and on the stone ledge to our left, an earwig eats a honey-yellow caterpillar. The flowers and insects are brightly lit from our left, and the chocolate-brown background is swallowed in shadow. A partially legible inscription in the lower right reads, “Kouwe be h.”
Philip van Kouwenbergh, Flowers in a Vase, c. 1700, oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Draper Blair, 1976.26.2

Entry

This decorative still life is one of the few signed works by this relatively unknown Amsterdam painter. The execution is fairly broad, and the colors are deep and rich. Van Kouwenbergh has displayed his floral arrangement around an elaborate earthenware urn situated at the edge of a stone ledge. The composition is organized along a diagonal that is not embellished with intricate rhythms of blossoms or twisting stems. In this respect Van Kouwenbergh belongs to the tradition of late followers of Heem, Jan Davidsz de, specifically Elias van den Broeck (c. 1650–1708), who may have been Van Kouwenbergh’s teacher, and Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), with whom his still lifes are sometimes confused. As none of Van Kouwenbergh’s few known paintings are dated, it is impossible to establish a meaningful chronology for his work. Nonetheless, because of stylistic similarities to paintings by Van den Broeck, this painting probably dates from early in his career.

Van Kouwenbergh includes many of the plants found in paintings by De Heem and his followers, including roses, poppies, morning glories, white lilacs, and stalks of wheat. He also incorporates a banded grove snail, two centipedes attacking each other, and a butterfly. In De Heem’s still lifes—for example, Vase of Flowers—flowers, wheat, and insects are often imbued with symbolic meaning related to the cycle of life or to Christian concepts of death and resurrection. Van Kouwenbergh probably understood the philosophical concepts underlying De Heem’s carefully conceived compositions, but too little is known of his oeuvre to be able to judge this with certainty. In this painting the rather whimsical sculptural element surmounting the urn would seem to set a tone quite contrary to the weighty messages De Heem sought to convey.

Technical Summary

The support, a heavy-weight, loosely and plain-woven fabric, has been lined with the tacking margins removed. Cusping is visible along all edges. Colored imprimaturas were applied locally over a fawn-colored ground. Thin, fluid paint layers are subtly blended, exploiting darker underlayers, and modified with light glazes and scumbles. The fading of a fugitive yellow pigment may be the cause of the blue tonality to the leaves, which overlap the completed vase.

The bottom edge and lower left corner are extensively damaged and reconstructed. A small loss is found in the red flower at center. Moderate abrasion overall has exposed darker underlayers, altering the tonal balance. The painting was lined and discolored varnish was removed in 1969, prior to acquisition.