- 190
Johannes Bronckhorst Leiden 1648 - 1727 Hoorn
Description
- Johannes Bronckhorst
- a wreath of flowers, from below clockwise: a poppy anemone, chamomile, auricula, english iris, a french rose, small morning glory, orange tip, austrian copper rose, a moth, a hollyhock, small garden nasturtium, streaked cranesbill, spreading bell-flower, opium poppy, snapdragon, meadow cranesbill, magpie moth, columbine, and perwinkle
- signed with initials, lower right: J.B. feci
- bears Ploos van Amstel's inscriptions in brown ink, verso: J: Bronkhorst. f. / h. 12 3/4 d / b. 10 1/4 d, and another inverted numbering in brown ink, verso: 126
pen and black ink and watercolour and gouache, with touches of gum arabic, within brown ink framing lines
Inv.nr. N 249
Provenance
Gerard Sanders, Rotterdam
His sale, Rotterdam, 5 August 1767 and ff, kunstboek B, nr. 54;
J.G. Cramer
His sale, Amsterdam, J. Cok, 13 November 1769 and ff, kunstboek C, nr. 128;
Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (L.2034, and with his inscriptions, verso, L.3002-4, see above)
His sale, Amsterdam, Van der Schley/Roos et al, 3 March 1800 and ff, kunstboek D, nr. 4 (f. 28.10, to van Leen);
Daniel de Jongh Azn.
His sale, Rotterdam, Van Rijp/Muys/Van Leen, 26 March 1810 and ff, kunstboek N, nr. 21 (f. 15.10, to van Leen);
Peter J. Dearden
Sale, London, Sotheby's 1 July 1971, lot 111;
With Lodewijk Houthakker, Amsterdam
Exhibited
Literature
Catalogue Note
Lots 190-203:
Three artists from Hoorn: Natural History drawings by Johannes Bronckhorst, Herman Henstenburgh and Anton Henstenburgh
Accounts of the work of Johannes Bronckhorst, his pupil Herman Henstenburgh and the latter’s son, Anton Henstenburgh, generally mention the fact that they all worked not only as artists but also, and perhaps primarily, as pastry-bakers, and that Bronckhorst was the elder Henstenburgh’s teacher in both of these arts. What is often less clearly described is the way in which these artists define Dutch natural history drawing of the period around 1700, standing as a crucial stylistic link between the generally more scientifically motivated drawings of the 17th century, and the greater emphasis on decoration often seen in the works of subsequent generations. From the time of the Tulip Mania, if not before, Dutch natural history draughtsmen had, perhaps in contrast to their painter colleagues, sought above all else to record and document faithfully the rich variety of species of the natural world, and even though their drawings were often very beautiful, they served primarily as catalogues of the contents of various collections of naturalia. In the field of flowers, one of the most famous such collections was that established by Agneta Block (1629-1704) at Vijverhof, her country house on the River Vecht. Block employed many of the leading natural history artists of her time to make a drawn record of the various flowers in her garden, and both Bronckhorst and Herman Henstenburgh worked for a while on this project, as part of a large group of artists that also included, amongst others, Pieter Withoos (see lots 121, 126-7), Herman Saftleven, Otto Marseus van Schrieck, Maria Sibylla Merian and Rochus van Veen (see lots 118, 120, 122). Yet unlike their older collaborators such as Saftleven, Bronckhorst and Henstenburgh rapidly moved on from making drawings that simply recorded the appearance of a particular plant or animal, to making complete compositions which, while generally very accurate in terms of natural history, were clearly conceived first and foremost as decorative independent works of art. The Unicorno collection contains an exceptional series of finished watercolours and gouaches of this type by all three of these highly talented Hoorn baker-artists.