Isaac Denies

Theodore William Holzapfel Ward (1879-1955), London, by 1928 (as Rachel Ruysch);

Anonymous sale, Monaco, Christie's, 20 June 1992, lot 53;

With Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam, by 1992;

Private collection, Germany;

Anonymous sale, Cologne, Lempertz, 14 November 2015, lot 1521;

Thereafter acquired.

R. Warner, Dutch and Flemish Fruit and Flowers of the XVII and XVIII Centuries, London 1928, pp. 62-63, reproduced pl. 26b (as Jan Denysz).

This floral still life exemplifies Isaac Denies’s work within the mid-seventeenth century Dutch still-life tradition. Carefully arranged blooms sit in a small glass vase on a marble ledge, their varied textures and colors rendered with precise observation. The stone support heightens the contrast between fragile petals and hard surface, while a dragonfly, snail, and butterfly discreetly animate the composition. The painting reflects Denies’s sensitivity to light, surface, and natural detail.