Still-Life with Flowers
Ambrosius Bosschaert1617
Hallwyl Museum
Stockholm, Sweden
Bosschaert seldom varied his compositions, no doubt relying upon the customer´s great demand for flower pieces. Three main motifs are common: flower in a vase on a table, in a niche or on a window sill. Signed AB (as monogram) 1617 on the border of the table.
Pieter Breughel the elder and Ambrosius Bosschaert´s manner of painting flower pieces quickly became the norm for several generations: symmetrical, aligned bouquets with a multitude of flowers from every season of the year. The aim was to represent a group of different flowers crowned by the expensive tulip. Bosschaerts interest in flowers is understandable as he lived in Middelburgh, capital of Zeeland, known for its botanical gardens and botanists.
Details
- Title: Still-Life with Flowers
- Creator: Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder
- Creator Lifespan: 1573 - 1621
- Creator Nationality: Dutch
- Creator Gender: Male
- Creator Death Place: The Hague
- Creator Birth Place: Antwerp
- Date Created: 1617
- Tags: Dutch
- Provenance: Bukowski, Stockholm, Johanna Kempe, Stockholm 1895
- Physical Dimensions: w195 x h300 mm (Without frame)
- Painter: Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder
- Artist info: Ambrosius Bosschaert was born in Antwerp, where he started his career, but he spent most of it in Middelburg (1587–1613) where he moved with his family because of the threat of religious persecution. He specialized in painting Flower-pieces which he signed with the monogram AB (the B in the A).At the age of twenty-one he joined the city’s Guild of Saint Luke and later became dean. Not long after he married and established himself as a leading figure in the fashionable floral painting genre. He had three sons who all became flower painters; Ambrosius II, Johannes and Abraham. His brother-in-law Balthazar van der Ast also lived and worked in his workshop and moved with him on his travels. Bosschaert later worked in Amsterdam, Bergen op Zoom, Utrecht and Breda. In 1619 when he moved to Utrecht, his brother-in-law entered the Utrecht Guild of St. Luke, where the renowned painter Abraham Bloemaert had just become dean. After his death his brother-in-law took over his workshop and pupils.
- Type: Oil on copper
- External Link: Image DIG 4472
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