Description
With just a few flowers, Verelst created a composition of great sophistication and balance. A simple glass flask is filled with a large rose, a red anemone, and a white narcissus tinged with pink. These flowers are surrounded by a scattering of smaller blossoms. Like many still-life painters, Verelst depicted a window reflected in the glass vase, but here he did not show the window's precise structure. He did, however, use another common device: the depiction of a few chips in the stone surface to make the material seem more tangible. Early in his career, Verelst moved from Holland to London, where he worked for the court of King James II and was extravagantly praised for the realism of his flower paintings.
Provenance
R. Warner, London; S. W. Highley, Harrogate (1928); Mrs. Noah L. Butkin; R. Warner (London, England); S. W. Highley Harrogate, 1928; Mrs. Noah L. Butkin (Shaker Heights, Ohio), by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. (-1982); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1982-)
Accession Number
1982.246
Medium
oil on wood
Dimensions
Framed: 41 x 37 x 5 cm (16 1/8 x 14 9/16 x 1 15/16 in.); Unframed: 26.4 x 22.6 cm (10 3/8 x 8 7/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Noah L. Butkin
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Dutch
Background & Context
Background Story
Simon Verelst (1644-1721) was a Dutch painter known for the precisely observed, brilliantly colored flower paintings that make him one of the most accomplished flower painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Flowers in a Vase from c. 1669 depicts flowers in a vase in the precisely observed, brilliantly colored manner that distinguishes Verelst's best work from the more restrained flower painting of his Dutch predecessors. The c. 1669 date places this in Verelst's most productive period, when he was producing the precisely observed, brilliantly colored flower paintings that are his most accomplished works, and the flower subject shows his talent for depicting flowers with both botanical precision and brilliant color.
Cultural Impact
Flowers in a Vase is important in the history of Dutch flower painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed, brilliantly colored manner that Verelst brought to flower subjects as one of the most accomplished flower painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Verelst's precisely observed flower paintings—combining botanical precision with brilliant color—represent one of the most accomplished traditions in Dutch Golden Age painting, and the c. 1669 painting shows this tradition at its most precisely observed and brilliantly colored.
Why It Matters
Flowers in a Vase is Verelst's brilliantly colored Dutch flower painting: flowers rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the most accomplished flower painters of the Dutch Golden Age. The c. 1669 painting shows the combination of botanical precision with brilliant color that makes Verelst one of the most accomplished flower painters of the 17th century.
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