Juan de Arellano

Oscar and Maria Salzer, Los Angeles;
By whom given to the Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art and Science,1983 (Acc. FMM 82.12).

Lawrence, KS, Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, The Salzer Collection, Trompe L'Oeil and Still Life Paintings, A Loan Exhibition, 4 October - 1 November 1964, cat. no. 3, reproduced;
Charlotte, NC, The Mint Museum of Art, The Salzer Collection, Trompe-L'Oeil and Still Life Paintings,  A Loan Exhibition, 14 February - 7 March 1965, cat. no. 3;
Los Angeles, Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California; Seattle, WA, Seattle Art Museum; Honolulu, HI, Honolulu Academy of Art; Santa Barbara, CA, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Reality and Deception, 16 October 1974 – 20 April 1975, cat. no. 4, reproduced.

Portraits of Objects, Oscar and Maria Salzer Collection of Still Life and Trompe-L'Oeil Paintings, Fresno 1984, cat. no. 1, reproduced in color.

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. This canvas has been lined in the last 50 years. The paint layer is stable and the lining is sufficient. The painting was most likely cleaned at the time of lining, if not more recently, and at that time it was also varnished and retouched. The varnish is slightly milky in the darkest colors and the cleaning is not perfectly even. The varnish is very thick and the retouches have been loosely applied. This picture is not represented well by the restoration and although there is loss and thinness here and there, particularly in the background, it can be improved enormously. The signature in the lower center has been strengthened yet does not appear to have been added, rather it has been broadly enhanced and the original inscription still remains. This picture does not look its best at present.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This beautiful still life by Arellano is datable to circa 1668 and can be compared to another work by the artist, signed and dated in that year, in a private collection, Madrid (see A.E. Pérez Sánchez, Juan de Arellano 1614-1676, exhibition catalogue, Madrid 1998, cat. no. 36, reproduced).

Arellano was unsurpassed as a painter of floral still lifes in seventeeth century Spain.  Though he started as a figure painter, his enormous talent became evident after he focused his energies on flower painting.  He was influenced by the works of Daniel Seghers and, later, by the Italian painter Mario Nuzzi who, according to Arellano's biographer Antonio Palomino, he greatly admired.

We are grateful to Dr. William B. Jordan for confirming the attribution and dating of this painting, on the basis of photographs.