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Gathered in a round glass vase, a tall bouquet of flowers in shades of light and deep pink, sunshine yellow, and white with pine-green leaves nearly fills this vertical still life painting. Shown against an gray background, the vase sits on a narrow ledge, perhaps made of wood. A label with looping, cursive French text painted in gold against a baby blue background is affixed to the front of the ledge, along the bottom edge of the composition. The text reads, “C'est l'Angelicq main du grad Peinctre de Flore AMBROISE, renommé jusqu' au Rivage Moré.” A few of the flowers draw the eye, including a tulip and iris at the top of the bouquet. To our left, the tulip is mauve pink with cream-colored streaks, and one petal folds down to reveal the stamen inside. Next to it, a damselfly, an insect like a delicate dragonfly, rests on the vibrant yellow iris. The petals curling down from the iris are veined in muted burgundy red. Flowers filling in the bouquet below include a shell-pink cyclamen, a white gardenia, a closed blue and white striped columbine, a slate-blue grape hyacinth, lily of the valley, pale blue forget-me-nots, and a pink peony interspersed with leaves and greenery. The round glass vase has a narrow opening. A sprig of viola rests to our left of the vase on the ledge, and an orange, black, white, and brown butterfly perches on the stem of a pink cyclamen laying to our right of the vase. The artist signed the painting with a monogram and dated it in dark paint to our right on the face of the ledge: “AB 1621.”
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Gathered in a round glass vase, a tall bouquet of flowers in shades of light and deep pink, sunshine yellow, and white with pine-green leaves nearly fills this vertical still life painting. Shown against an gray background, the vase sits on a narrow ledge, perhaps made of wood. A label with looping, cursive French text painted in gold against a baby blue background is affixed to the front of the ledge, along the bottom edge of the composition. The text reads, “C'est l'Angelicq main du grad Peinctre de Flore AMBROISE, renommé jusqu' au Rivage Moré.” A few of the flowers draw the eye, including a tulip and iris at the top of the bouquet. To our left, the tulip is mauve pink with cream-colored streaks, and one petal folds down to reveal the stamen inside. Next to it, a damselfly, an insect like a delicate dragonfly, rests on the vibrant yellow iris. The petals curling down from the iris are veined in muted burgundy red. Flowers filling in the bouquet below include a shell-pink cyclamen, a white gardenia, a closed blue and white striped columbine, a slate-blue grape hyacinth, lily of the valley, pale blue forget-me-nots, and a pink peony interspersed with leaves and greenery. The round glass vase has a narrow opening. A sprig of viola rests to our left of the vase on the ledge, and an orange, black, white, and brown butterfly perches on the stem of a pink cyclamen laying to our right of the vase. The artist signed the painting with a monogram and dated it in dark paint to our right on the face of the ledge: “AB 1621.”

National Gallery of Art · Painting

Bouquet of Flowers in a Glass Vase

Ambrosius Bosschaert

Date
1621
Medium
oil on copper
Dimensions
overall: 31.6 x 21.6 cm (12 7/16 x 8 1/2 in.) framed: 53.3 x 43.8 x 5.7 cm (21 x 17 1/4 x 2 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1996.35.1
Credit line
Patrons' Permanent Fund and New Century Fund
Time span
1601 to 1650
Department
CNE-B
Original NGA record Wikidata Print information

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • Baroque
  • Dutch
  • Flower
  • still life
  • still
  • Acquired after launch of Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century (NGA Online Editions)
  • Insects
Provenance

Probably painted 1621 for Frederick van Schurman (or Schuermans) [1564-1623], The Hague.[1] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 7 April 1922, no. 54); private collection, England; (John Mitchell & Sons, London); private collection, England; (Edward Speelman, Ltd., London); purchased 27 June 1996 by NGA. [1] This painting is probably the one that Bosschaert took with him in 1621, when he traveled from Breda to The Hague to deliver a _blompot_ (flower still-life painting) to Frederick van Schurman (or Schuermans), the _bottelier_ of Prince Maurits. For this work Bosschaert received the extraordinary sum of 1,000 guilders. Maria Bosschaert, Ambrosius’ daughter, wrote the following: “Mijn vader Ambrosius Bosschaert is gesturven in Schravenhage in ‘t jaer als den 12 jarigen Trebes uut was, doch was woonachtig binnen Breda maer near den Hage getrocken om een blompot te leveren die hij hadde gemaeckt voor de bottelier van Sijn Hoochheyt daervoor hij dusent gulden hadde bedongen ende is aldaer sieck geworden ten huyse van joncker Schuermans, vader van Anna Maria Schuermans ende aldaer gesturven ende in Schravenhage begraven, tot droefheyt van veel liefhebbers.” See Abraham Bredius, “De bloemschilders Bosschaert,” _Oud-Holland_ 31 (1913):138. Frederick van Schurman had been ennobled by the Holy Roman Emperor, and the phrase Maria Bosschaert used to refer to Van Schurman, a _joncker_ (from the German _Junker_), is an honorary title that corresponds to the old inscription “Jonckheere …” on the verso of the painting.

Inscription

lower right in monogram: .AB.1621; across bottom in blue field: C'est l'Angelicq[ue] main du gra[n]d Peinctre de Flore / AMBROISE, renommé jusqu' au Rivage Moré. (This is the angelic hand of the great painter of Flora, Ambrosius, renowned even to the banks of the Moré).

NGA object ID 94743. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.