This is one of several versions by Jan Brueghel the Younger of the famed flower-piece painted by his father, Jan Brueghel the Elder, dated circa 1606–07, today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.1 The blooms in the bucket include a crown imperial lily, roses and tulips, as well as cyclamen, fritillaries, hyacinths, cornflowers, viburnum, irises, jonquils, wood anemones, butterwort and other flowers. The image does not offer a representation of a real bouquet, but rather an encyclopedic overview of rare species. Art and scientific interest are combined in a highly meticulous, virtuoso rendering of 130 different flowers.
- Greater periwinkle (Vinca major), western Mediterranean
- Wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa), Europe
- Crown imperial lily (Fritillaria imperialis), Middle East and Central Asia
- Jonquil (Narcissus jonquilla), Spain and Portugal
- Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena), southern Europe, north Africa and southwest Asia
- Yellow Turk's cap Lily (Lilium pyrenaicum), Pyrenees
- Lily (Lilium candidum), Northern Hemisphere
- Peony (Paeonia officinalis), Asia, Europe and Western North America
- Wild daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus), Western Europe
- Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens), Europe, Asia and northwestern Africa
- Bunch flowered daffodil (Narcissus tazetta), Mediterranean
- Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), Europe and Middle East
- Snapdragon (Antirrhinum), Europe, United States and North Africa
- Wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca), Northern Hemisphere
- English Iris (Iris latifolia), southwestern France and northwestern Spain
- Hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis), southwestern Asia, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel
- Cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum), Mediterranean Basin
- Rose (Rosa), North America, Europe, northwest Africa, Asia and Oceania
- Tulip (Tulipa), Central Asia and Europe
- Mulberries (Morus nigra), southwestern Asia and Iberian Peninsula
When this painting was offered at auction in 1987 it was accompanied by a certificate from Klaus Ertz endorsing the attribution to Jan Brueghel the Younger and dating it to circa 1620. In his catalogue published in 1984, Ertz lists seven versions of the composition by the younger Brueghel;2 the present work is closest to the panel formerly in the Wetzlar collection, with which it shares the same dimensions.3 Each version carefully follows the design of the elder Brueghel, with only minor differences. Another version by the younger Brueghel, of slightly larger dimensions, was sold at Sotheby’s, London, 11 December 2003, lot 56, for £650,000.
1 A. Wied, in Das Flämische Stilleben 1550–1680, exh. cat., Vienna 2002, pp. 286–87, no. 95, reproduced; https://www.khm.at/en/objectdb/detail/351/?offset=17&lv=list
2 K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel the Younger, Freren 1984, pp. 427–31, nos 264–70.
3 Ertz 1984, pp. 430–31, no. 269.