Jan Brueghel the Elder (Brussels 1568 - 1625 Antwerp) and Jan Brueghel the Younger (Antwerp 1601 - 1678)

Charrière de Severy, Château de Severy, Lausanne;
Private collection, Switzerland;
With Bob Haboldt, Paris, from whom purchased in 2001 by the present collector.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. It is very hard to acquire any accurate knowledge of the condition of this paint layer under ultraviolet light examination, yet to the naked eye one can clearly see that the condition is very good. The copper panel is flat, except for a slight dent in the upper right corner and there are no reinforcements on the reverse. The paint layer is clean and varnished. There may be a few isolated retouches in the background on the left side and perhaps on the right side. In the flowers and the table top however there appears to be no real losses, except possibly in the lower right in the sprig of foliage.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This painting is a fascinating example of the collaboration of Jan Brueghel the Younger and his father, and will be included in the forthcoming addendum to the catalogue raisonné of the works of Jan Brueghel the Younger by Klaus Ertz.  

Jan the Younger trained in his father's studio and began painting flower pieces at an early age.  Many of his still lifes are either modeled on paintings by his father or derivations of his compositions.  In 1622 he traveled to Italy and stayed in Milan with Cardinal Federico Borromeo.  The Cardinal was his father's patron and the man for whom he had painted his first flower piece, the Large Bouquet of Flowers in an Earthenware Vase, now in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan.  In the spring of 1624 Jan the Younger went to Palermo with his friend from childhood, Antony van Dyck, but he returned to Antwerp in 1625 at death of his father, two sisters and a brother from cholera.  

Ertz points out that while most of Still Life of Tulips and Roses in a Glass Vase is executed in a relatively loose manner characteristic of Jan the Younger, some details are tighter and more controlled.¹ He points especially to the treatment of the tulips, which are finely painted and very three-dimensional in form, as the work of Jan the Elder.² As a collaborative work, the painting must date from the early 1620s, while Jan the Younger was still in his father's studio and before he departed for Italy. 

In a variant of the present work, Flowers in a Glass Vase with a Poem, the bouquet and setting are the same, but there is a poem about the ephemeral nature of worldly things, on a sheet of paper attached to the ledge.  The painting was formerly given to Jan Brueghel the Elder, but Ertz has reattributed it to Jan Brueghel the Younger.³ Thus rather than following Flowers in a Glass Vase with a Poem, Still Life of Tulips and Roses in a Glass Vase is the prime version of this composition, executed by Jan Brueghel II under the direction of and with the assistance of his father.

1  K. Ertz, written report, January 6, 1998.
2  Ibid.
3  S. Segal, A Flowery Past.  A Survey of Dutch and Flemish Flower Painting from 1600 Until the Present, exhibition catalogue Amsterdam and Hertogenbosch, 1982, p. 22, fig. 6, as Jan Brueghel the Elder.  K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625).  Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Cologne 1979, p. 530, note 350, as Jan Brueghel the Younger and K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678). The Paintings with Oeuvre Catalogue, Luca 1984, vol. I, pp.72 and 442-43, as Jan the Younger.