- Museum number
- 1895,0915.1012
- Description
-
A tazza-shaped vase with flowers tumbling over the bowl
Pen and brown ink, with brown wash
- Production date
- 1583-1625
- Dimensions
-
Height: 279 millimetres
-
Width: 374 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The signature is probably not by Jan Brueghel the Elder (Brueghel usually signs with 'Jean' or 'Giovanni' and 'Brueghel' with 'h'). It is not clear if this quickly made sketch is a preparatory study for a painting or rather a 'ricordo' of a painting that had left the artist's studio; no painting showing the exact composition is known. Similar flower arrangements paintings are now in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena (inv.no.F.1972.13.P, attributed to his son Jan Brueghel the Younger) and others recently on the art market (see 'Old Master Paintings including the Henle Collection', Sotheby's London, 3 and 4 December 1997, p.81, under no.38; 'Importants Tableaux Anciens', Sotheby's Monaco, 2 and 3 December 1989, p.42, under no.322, p.41, fig.322 (also at Sotheby's New York 26 Jan. 2006 lot 17), and Sotheby's New York, 15 January 1993, lot 87. Brueghel's study for a flower painting, Garland of Fruits and Flowers (c. 1620-23) is at the Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp (inv. no. PK OT 00562).
Literature: W. Bernt, 'Die Niederländischen Zeichner des 17. Jahrhunderts',I, 1957, no.133, fig.133; M. Winner, 'Zeichnungen des Älteren Jan Brueghel', in Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 3 (1961), Berlin, 1961, p.237, fig.47; B. Brenninkmeyer-de Rooij, in Oud Holland 104 (1990), pp.231-32, fig.15, note.58 (compares with a Bruegel picture of the same subject, sold Sotheby's, Monaco, 2 December 1989, lot 322); K. Ertz, "Jan Brueghel der Ältere: Die Gemälde", Cologne, 1979, pp.149-151, pp.288-289, fig.358, unter cat.no.269, p.602; T. Gerszi and L. Wood Ruby, 'Jan Brueghel: A Magnificent Draftsman' (Antwerp, 2019) p. 108 (reject attribution to Jan Brueghel).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1996-7 Sept-Jan, BM, Malcolm Collection, Appx.
1990 April-Aug, BM, Treasures of P&D (no cat.)
- Acquisition date
- 1895
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1895,0915.1012
