Lot 147. Property from Modern Medici: Selections from a New York Collection. Jan Mortel (Leiden c.1650 -1719), A bouquet of peonies, tulips, roses and other flowers on a ledge, with butterflies, a snail and a beetle, signed and dated 'JMortel fecit. / 1715.' (on the stone, lower right), oil on panel, 47 x 33.3 cm. Price realised USD 63,000 (Estimate USD 80,000 – USD 120,000). © Christies 2024

Provenance: Anonymous sale; Christie's, Amsterdam, 14 November 2007, lot 159.
[Property of a Private Collector]; Sotheby's, New York, 5 June 2008, lot 39.

Note: Jan Mortel spent his entire career in his native city of Leiden, painting primarily still lifes, with the exception of a few portraits and kitchen scenes executed in his youth (see A. van der Willingen and F. G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Painters, Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden, 2003, p. 146). He was listed as a pupil in the workshop of Jan Porcellis van Delden, grandson of the great marine painter Jan Porcellis and in 1675 Mortel is registered as a full member of the local painter’s guild. By 1690 his prowess as a painter of flowers had grown to such an extent that he was appointed as the official painter of the Hortus Academicus, the botanical garden at the University of Leiden, now known as the Hortus Botanicus Leiden. The garden, established in 1587 for the benefit of the medical students, contained thousands of specimens many of which were collected by the Dutch East India Company from the colonies.

Mortel’s time in the garden would have given him access to many exotic fruits and flowers, however in the present work he chose to focus on European varieties. Many of Mortel’s late works, including the present painting, demonstrate the influence of Abraham Mignon in their clear colors and dark backgrounds. This painting also draws inspiration from the work of Otto Marseus van Schrieck and Mattias Withoos who specialized in sottobosco, or ‘forest floor' still lifes, which are characterized by wildly intertwined flowers and the detailed depiction of insects. Here, the floral composition is enlivened by the butterflies perched on the blooms and a snail defying gravity as it crawls upside down along the stone ledge, among other insects.