Lot 2050 Nα

"Flowers in a Chinese porcelain vase" is a pictorial motif that the younger Jan Breughel painted frequently in various formats, with ever different flowers and vessels. Compared to the exuberant floral splendour of some of his father's works, the arrangement presented here is enchanting precisely because of the intimate character of the small format and the unpretentious choice of flowers: Pink and red peonies, a stem of forget-me-nots, a stem of snowdrops with a single flower and above it, clearly contrasting against the dark background, two red and yellow tulips. Two petals have already dropped and lie next to the vase on the tabletop.
The hitherto unknown painting, hidden for decades in a Swiss private collection, is dated by Klaus Ertz to the early 1630s. It was thus created in the period when the painter had already taken over the workshop of his father Jan Brueghel the Elder (1558-1625) in Antwerp.