胡安·德·阿雷利亞諾

Private Collection, France, circa 1815 until at least 1990;

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 30 January 1998, lot 84;

Where acquired by the present collector.

Madrid, Fundación Caja de Madrid, Juan de Arellano: 1614–1676,  May – June 1998, nos 19 and 20.

A.E. Pérez Sánchez, Juan de Arellano, 1614–1676, exh. cat., Madrid 1998, pp. 159–61, cat. nos 19 and 20, reproduced in colour. 

The following condition report is provided by Henry Gentle who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Juan de Arellano A pair of still lifes of flowers The original canvases are lined and the paint surface is stable and secure. Minor paint loss to both paintings can be detected through the flower arrangements, some restored out. Excessive discoloured restoration can be seen in the background to both paintings. It has been applied to reduce the natural thinning of the paint layer here where the pale ground colour has become more dominant and has accentuated the canvas weave , and where fine shrinkage cracks have been deemed distracting to the eye. The ledge on the extreme right of the vase with the blue base has been strengthened. The paint texture within the floral arrangements is very well preserved, the colours retaining their vibrancy and depth of colour and adding to the exuberance of the composition. Removal of the slightly discoloured varnish would increase the vibrancy of the composition. Overall, the paintings are in good original condition and have been altered very little by any previous intervention.
"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."

Operating from a shop in front of La Iglesia de San Felipe el Real in Madrid, Juan de Arellano rose from modest beginnings to become the greatest flower still life painter of the Spanish Golden Age. This beautifully preserved pair of still lifes is an outstanding example of the artist’s floreros de cristal and are dated 1665. At this time Arellano was at the height of his artistic powers and the superb quality of these paintings is underscored by their inclusion in the seminal exhibition on the artist held in Madrid in 1998, curated by the late Professor Alfonso Pérez Sánchez.

This mature period of Arellano’s career is defined as the moment that the more restrained floral arrangements and limited palette of the artist’s earlier output gave way to a greater exuberance and abundance in the design of the still lifes, along with a greater use of primary colours. In the present pair the artist uses a dazzling array of red, blue, yellow and white blooms among verdant green foliage. The sense of illusion that Arellano has achieved is remarkable; the crystal vase flooded with light that illuminates the web of green stems, and the light entering from the left of each composition casts long shadows across the stone plinths and dramatically sets these illuminated arrangements against their plain, dark backgrounds.

That Arellano chose to sign these works with the unusual form ‘Joannes’, indicates that the pair were probably commissioned by a Northern European patron, a notion maintained by the precision with which the flowers are painted here, demonstrating the artist’s admiration for the Dutch and Flemish still life painters, such as Daniel Seghers, whose works could have been seen in Madrid by the middle of the seventeenth century.