Still Life with Flowers Surrounded by Insects and a Snail

A loose bouquet of spring flowers — lily of the valley, violet, grape hyacinth, narcissus, red poppy and pink fritillary — stands in a knubby glass against a black oval ground, while a dragonfly, a red-eyed house fly, a caterpillar, a hornet, a snail, a ladybug and a scarlet-winged beetle are scattered around it on the white surface at a much larger scale, each insect painted with such precision that its anatomy can be read at a glance. Clara Peeters, the first great woman painter of the Flemish Baroque, signed the small copper “CLARA P.” on the front of the ledge about 1610, at the very beginning of the Antwerp still-life tradition, and the water droplets beading on the table show the virtuoso realism that made her flower pieces prized across Europe. The copper passed through the collection of Baron Willem van Dedem before the National Gallery acquired it in 2018 through the Lee and Juliet Folger Fund. The painting is held in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.