Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer

With Richard Green, London, from whom acquired by the present owner.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas is lined and the paint surface is stable. Under U-V light can be seen a scattering of retouchings to the background to reduce the thinness to the paint surface here. The flowers have had one or two small damages reduced. There is a moderately discoloured varnish."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Although he began his career as a history painter, collaborating with Charles Le Brun on the decoration of the royal châteaux at Marly and Meudon and of the Grand Trianon at Versailles, Monnoyer submitted four still lifes to his first Salon in 1673 and henceforward would concentrate almost exclusively on this genre. His skill was soon widely acknowledged, to the extent that Louis XIV purchased about sixty works from him, and he was summoned to England by Ralph Montagu, later 1st Duke of Montagu, where he decorated several rooms in Montagu House (now destroyed) and later he also worked at Burlington House for the Earl of Carlisle and at Kensington Palace for the Duke of St. Albans.