Lot 18. Osias Beert the Elder (Antwerp (?) circa 1580 (?) - 1624), Still life of roses in an oriental lacquer and canework bowl, on a ledge with a butterfly and dragonfly, oil on oak panel, 43.1 x 57.6 cm.; 17 x 22¾ in. (including vertical strips of 2.7 and 5 cm. on the left and right margins, respectively); 46.3 x 65.9 cm.; 18¼ x 26 in. Lot sold: 630,600 GBP (Estimate: 200,000 - 300,000 GBP). © 2022 Sotheby's. 

Property from the Grasset Collection.

Provenance: Private collection, England;
With Dennis van der Kar Gallery, London;
With David and Leonard Koetser, Zurich;
Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 13 March 1980, lot 104, for $22,000;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 8 July 1981, lot 60, where unsold;
With Harari & Johns, London;
From whom acquired in 1982 for the Grasset Collection.

Literature: E. Greindl, Les Peintres Flamands de Nature Morte au XVIIe Siècle, Brussels 1983, pp. 28 and 337, no. 61;
M.-L. Hairs, The Flemish Flower Painters in the XVIIth Century, Brussels 1985, pp. 341 and 457;
S. Segal, 'Objecten in stillevens van de Gouden Eeuw', in Oude Kunst- en Antiekbeurs Delft (Prinsenhof), vol. 43e, 1991, p. XV, reproduced in colour, p. XIV, fig. 1;
F.G. Meijer, Brueghel to Canaletto, European Masterpieces from the Grasset Collection, exh. cat., San Diego 2016, p. 10, no. 4, reproduced in colour;
S. Thomas, A Feast for the Eyes, European Masterpieces from the Grasset Collection, exh. cat., Saint Petersburg, Florida 2019, pp. 30 and 95, no. 9, reproduced in colour;
S. Segal and K. Alen, Dutch and Flemish Flower Pieces: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints up to the Nineteenth Century, Leiden and Boston 2020, vol. 1, pp. 239–41, no. 6.33, reproduced in colour;
To be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné by Dr Klara Alen, Osias Beert. Pioneer of the Antwerp laid table and flower still life.

Exhibited: Amsterdam, P. de Boer, and 's-Hertogenbosch, Noordbrabants Museum, Een Bloemrijk Verleden: overzicht van de noord- en zuidnederlandse bloemschilderkunst, 1600–heden, 13 March – 30 May 1982, no. 28;
San Diego, The San Diego Museum of Art, Brueghel to Canaletto, European Masterpieces from the Grasset Collection, 2 April – 2 August 2016, no. 4;
Saint Petersburg, Florida, Museum of Fine Arts, A Feast for the Eyes, European Masterpieces from the Grasset Collection, 23 March – 2 September 2019, no. 9.

Note: This painting exemplifies the refinement of Osias Beert's technique and execution in depicting no less than twelve different varieties of roses, masterfully arranged in a composition of colourful harmony, in a rare oriental lacquer and canework bowl. The combination of flowers and vessel epitomises the sense of exoticism and luxury that imbues the majority of the earliest Flemish still-life paintings of the seventeenth century, of which Beert's works were some of the most definitive and influential. Although Beert did not date any of his works, so establishing a coherent chronology of his œuvre has proven almost impossible, scholars generally date this painting to circa 1615.

Beert's extant corpus numbers around fifty firmly attributed paintings, of which more or less half depict fruits and food, and the other half flowers. This panel, in which a single basket filled with a single genus of flower dominates the composition, is a rare example, not only in design but also in quality. It is most comparable to two works, today in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (fig. 1),¹ and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (acquired by the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation in 2012; fig. 2).² The present painting is distinguished from these still lifes, however, in its sole focus on summer roses (White, French, Dog, Cinnamon, Damask and Apothecary's Roses, along with Sweet Briars and Austrian Briars, which arrived in Europe from Persia in the late sixteenth century), rather than the fanciful combinations of multiple blooms that appear in most of Beert's other works.

Fig.1 Osias Beert the Elder, Still life of three floral bouquets resting on a table. Oil on panel, 52.5 x. 75 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris © 2017 RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre) / Michel Urtado.

Fig. 2 Osias Beert the Elder, Still life of flowers in a basket, circa 1620. Oil on panel, 53.7 x 74.9 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

In this respect, this work compares closely to one of Beert's few signed paintings – the Still life of a basket of roses formerly with Galerie van Diemen, though now untraced.³ That panel likewise features the expensive oriental bowl, banded with gilded lacquer, which was even more rare in Europe than the sought-after blue and white porcelain vessels from the East that also appear in Netherlandish still lifes. Such an object may quite possibly have belonged to Beert, since it appears in these and other paintings, albeit with slight variations – indeed, the pattern of the gilding here and in the Van Diemen painting is more elaborate than in other examples.⁴ The presence of the dragonfly and butterfly before the choice display behind them, along with a few fallen petals, serve as a reminder of transience – the flowers in bloom now will wilt and fade and the insects may fly off at any moment, leaving only the opulent empty bowl, a vanity of human pride.

For further discussion of the artist and his career, see the Still life of flowers in four vessels, offered in this sale.

¹ https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010064498

² https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/113154/still-life-of-flowers-in-a-basket

³ https://rkd.nl/explore/images/14744

⁴ Though generally thought to be Chinese in origin, these basket bowls have also been described as Japanese, Thai or Javan. See S. Segal, Flowers and Nature: Netherlandish flower painting of four centuries, exh. cat., The Hague 1990, pp. 182–83, n. 9.

Sotheby's. Old Masters Evening Auction, London, 7 December 2022