Bouquet of Flowers in an Earthenware Vase

Tulips, roses, irises, carnations and other blooms crowd a brown earthenware vase against a deep olive ground, each petal and curling leaf painted with the jewelled precision of early seventeenth-century Flemish flower painting. The panel is attributed to Jan Brueghel the Elder, the painter of Antwerp whose flower pieces made him the most sought-after still-life specialist of his generation, and it dates from about 1605 to 1615, the decade of his finest bouquets, painted for the courts of Brussels and Prague. The picture was given to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1948 by Arthur Keating. The painting is held in the Art Institute of Chicago.