Arthur Chaplin

Julius H. Weitzner, New York and London
Sale: Barridoff Galleries, Portland, Maine, July 31, 2002, lot 121, illustrated
Private Collection, Connecticut

This extraordinary flower piece is reminiscent of two distinct groups of Old Master flower paintings.  It is primarily in the style of Jan van Huysum and his followers, who in the eighteenth century created opulent arrangements of massed flowers for the rococo interiors they were intended to adorn.  In these works double roses generally occupied the position of centrality, with several flowers tumbling from the over-filled vase towards the ledge beneath.  The inclusion of a marble ledge became an integral part of most eighteenth century arrangements, usually containing a bird’s nest. 

The dramatic diagonal emphasis of this arrangement, together with the strong contrasts of light and shade against such a dark background, call to mind the fashion which preceded van Huysum, known as forest floor paintings.  In these floral compositions there was no vase, but brilliant red poppies often drooped against the dark background, as can be seen in this arrangement.  The foliage at the top of the composition, reaching across from the old man’s beard on the left towards the magnificent foxglove on the right, has a wild hedgerow appearance which was also characteristic of the forest floor paintings of Rachel Ruysch and Abraham Mignon.

While paying skillful homage to past genres of flower painting, Arthur Chaplin naturally included certain flowers that were unknown to European gardens and artists before the nineteenth century.  These newcomers, whose novelty made them the height of fashion, included the yellow dahlia (from Central America) lighting up the centre of the painting; the delphiniums (from Central Asia) providing the blue contrast; the little red geranium (from South America) and the sweet pea, newly developed from a Sicilian wild flower.