Still life with rose branch in a Chinese Transitional Porcelain vase decorated with butterflies and insects

‘ It’s actually very strange, but we don’t have a single seventeenthcentury flower still life with a vase, even though such representations were very popular at the time. That’s why we wanted this beautiful drawing so much. It was made by the least known son of Wybrand de Geest, François. There are all kinds of flowers, butterflies and insects in this drawing, which I wanted to give a name to, but of course that’s not my job. Fortunately, we share our depot with the Frisian Nature Museum, among others, and they were able to help us with the names of all the plants and insects that are portrayed here.’

Marlies Stoter
curator Old Art