Abraham Brueghel

Anonymous sale (‘The Property of a Family’), London, Sotheby’s, 5 July 1995, lot 60, for £28,000;

Anonymous sale (‘The Property of a Gentleman’), London , Bonhams Knightsbridge, 13 April 1999, lot 164, for £26,000;

Where acquired by Baron and Baronne de Giey;

Thence by descent.

G. Bocchi and U. Bocchi, Pittori di Natura Morta a Roma. Artisti stranieri 1630–1750, Viadana 2005, p. 125, fig. AB.10, reproduced in colour p. 128;

A. Cottino, Abraham Brueghel 1631–1697, Un Maestro della Pittura Morta fra Anversa Roma e Napoli, Foligno 2022, p. 101, no. 48, reproduced in colour.

While the flowers and landscape are consistent with Abraham Brueghel’s style, the figure of the young woman in the present work is by a different hand. Brueghel collaborated with several Roman and Neapolitan artists during his career, including Guglielmo Cortesi, Giacinto Brandi, Giovanni Battista Gaulli and Carlo Maratta. His most fruitful collaboration seems to have been with Cortesi, an expert in depicting allegorical and genre figures.

By the seventeenth century, Flemish artists with different specialisms would often collaborate on paintings, a working practice that would eventually reach Rome. Brueghel, who had emigrated from Antwerp to Sicily before settling in Rome in 1659, evidently played his part as a flower painting specialist in such a division of labour. This work displays a harmonious and balanced composition showcasing Brueghel’s detailed representation of colourful spring blooms.