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| Artist | Brueghel, Jan, the younger (Flemish painter and draftsman, 1601-1678) |
| Title | Still Life with a Basket of Flowers and Glass |
| Date earliest | probably 1617 |
| Date latest | possibly about 1625 |
| Material | oil on canvas |
| Measurements | 56 x 89.5 cm (estimate) |
| Description | Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678) was the son of Jan 'Velvet' Brueghel (1568-1625) and grandson of the most famous Pieter Bruegel (around 1525-1569). One of the most influential families of seventeenth-century Flemish artists, Pieter Bruegel and his heirs set the standard into the next century for flower painting; the younger members of the family were principally engaged in providing copies of earlier works by family members. Jan Brueghel the Younger trained with his father and in 1624 travelled to Palermo with his childhood friend Anthony Van Dyck, the following year he took over his father's studio and in 1630-31 he was Dean of the Antwerp Guild of St Luke. This painting by Jan Brueghel the Younger is probably a copy of the Still Life with a Basket of Flowers and Glass painted on panel by his father Jan 'Velvet' Brueghel and dated to around 1617; it was probably painted in his father's studio. The power of this painting lies in the extreme simplicity of its composition, which shows the over-spilling basket of flowers on a grey stone ledge beyond which is a near black background. These two bands of ground colour take up about half the canvas each and set off the bright colours of the many different flowers and insects to great advantage. The artist has taken great care with the depiction of all the details, of which the most notable are the flowers projecting off the stone ledge into the foreground and the representation of shadows - particularly that cast by the glass on the right - which heighten the sense of real depth in this elegantly conceived vanitas painting. |
| Subject | still life |
| Collection | English Heritage (Audley End) |
| Current accession number | 81033498 |
| Acquisition details | Purchased by English Heritage from Baron Braybrooke 1998. |
| Principal publications | Richard, 3rd Lord Braybrooke, History of Audley End and Saffron Walden, 1836; Catalogue of Pictures at Audley End, the Property of Lord Braybrooke, 4 August 1871. |
| Notes |
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| Rights status | Copyright English Heritage |
| Author | Francesco Nevola |
