Jan Philip van Thielen

Carlos Díaz Tolosana, Velázquez 29, Madrid;

From whom taken by the 1ª Brigada Investigación Criminal, 27 August 1938;

Caja General de Reparaciones (ref. no. 3107);

Junta del Tesoro Artístico Republicana (ref. no. 4639);

Anonymous sale, Madrid, Christie’s, 16 May 1974, lot 145;

Where acquired for the Grasset Collection.

F.G. Meijer, Brueghel to Canaletto, European Masterpieces from the Grasset Collection, exh. cat., San Diego 2016, p. 27, no. 22, reproduced in colour;

S. Thomas, A Feast for the Eyes, European Masterpieces from the Grasset Collection, exh. cat., Saint Petersburg, Florida 2019, pp. 80–81 and 100, no. 35, reproduced in colour.

San Diego, The San Diego Museum of Art, Brueghel to Canaletto, European Masterpieces from the Grasset Collection, 2 April – 2 August 2016, no. 22;

Saint Petersburg, Florida, Museum of Fine Arts, A Feast for the Eyes, European Masterpieces from the Grasset Collection, 23 March – 2 September 2019, no. 35.

Jan Philip van Thielen is one of the most highly regarded flower painters of the mid-seventeenth century. Although he began his career as a pupil of the Caravaggist Theodoor Rombouts (1597–1637), he later became the only pupil of the prominent Jesuit flower painter Daniël Seghers (1590–1661). Dr Fred G. Meijer dates this work to the second-half of the 1640s and describes it as reminiscent of the work of Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606–1683/4), who was also painting in Antwerp during that time (see Literature).

We would like to thank Professor and Professor Emeritus Arturo Colorado Castellary of the UCM (Universidad Complutense Madrid) for his help in researching the provenance of this work.