Lot 1064 Dα

Jan van Os, born in Middelharnis in 1744, studied under the painter Aert Schouman in neighbouring The Hague. He initially focussed on landscape and marine painting, but switched to flower and fruit arrangements in the mid-1760s. In doing so, he built on the Dutch tradition of Jan van Huysum, for example, but his works radiate the freshness and cloudless optimism of his own era and the sensuality of the ludic 18th century. Van Os paints flowers and fruit with the greatest precision and virtuosity. He organises his compositions asymmetrically and in a pyramid form, revealing the invisible zig-zag line that is so characteristic of the art of his time.
The vibrant colours of van Os' paintings are astonishing. They are dominated by a green base tone, which accounts for the positive aura of his paintings. The present large panel, with its lush splendour of flowers and fruit, exemplifies all the qualities that have impressed observers of van Os' works since their inception and continue to do so to the present day.