Juan de Arellano Santorcaz 1614 - 1676 Madrid

With Sir Joseph Duveen, London and New York;
Acquired by the family of the present owner in the 1920s.

Arellano was the leading painter of floreros in Spain in the seventeenth century. In Madrid he briefly joined the studio of Juan de Solis in circa 1630, but soon decided to concentrate on still-life painting rather than figurative compositions, as was noted by his biographer, Antonio Palomino.  Not only did he work much more quickly and easily in this genre, but he was also much better rewarded for his work.  He set up his studio in Madrid in the Puerta del Sol and was largely self-taught, though he was obviously influenced by the work of Flemish still-life painters, such as Daniel Seghers, and the Italian artist, Mario Nuzzi.

The present still-life compares very closely in format and size to one in the Herencia Remondo-Rioja collection, Zaragoza and to a pair in the Masaveu collection, Oviedo (see A.E. Pérez Sánchez, Juan de Arellano, 1614-1676, catalogue of the exhibition, Fundación Caja Madrid, 1998, cat. nos. 54, 55-56).