Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder

Perhaps Jean de Carpentier, according to an inscription on the reverse in a 17^th century hand;
In the Russian Imperial collections, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, by 1773 (in the catalogue of that year, no. 1987, as by Abraham Breugel, and likewise in the 1797 catalogue, no. 930); with subsequent inventory numbers 1352 (by 1863 until after 1901, stencilled on the reverse of the copper) & 1948  (painted, on the reverse of the copper), until 14th November 1932, when deaccessioned;
Acquired by the grandfather of the present owners, probably in Berlin where he lived, in 1932;
Thence by descent in Berlin until now.

Hermitage catalogue of 1773, no. 1987;
Idem, 1797, no. 930;
Ermitage Impérial.  Catalogue de la Galerie des Tableaux, Saint Petersburg 1863, p. 285, no. 1352, as by Abraham Breughel;
Idem, 2nd ed., 1870, vol. II, p. 326, no. 1352, as by Abraham Breugel (sic), with a transcription of the monogram;
A. Semof, Ermitage Impérial. Catalogue de la Galerie des Tableaux, Saint Petersburg 1895, p. 27, no. 1352, as by Ambrosius Bosschaert;
Idem, subsequent ed.,1901, pp. 30-31, no. 1352;
L.J. Bol, The Bosschaert Dynasty, Leigh on Sea 1960, p. 65, no. 35.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Folkes of Simon Folkes Picture Conservation and Restoration, Studio 6, 5 Thurloe Square, London SW7 2TA, +44 020 7589 1649, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. Support The painting is on a relatively thick sheet of copper. This has a very gentle concave curve from the top to bottom edge when seen from the front but, due to the flexibility of the support, is completely flat once the painting is held in its frame. The copper has a slight undulation across the top right corner consistent with it having fallen at some point on that edge. Paint layers The condition of the paint layers is exceptionally good for its age. Almost all the damages of any note are confined to the outer edges of the painting leaving the central composition of flowers and the beaker in almost pristine condition. There is however a small cluster of little paint losses in the leaves to the right of the large tulip at the upper right side and a couple of tiny losses in the tulip itself as well as in the blue iris at the apex of the composition. A few other little losses are scattered across the central part of the composition but otherwise this area has survived almost unscathed. The only significant damages can be found at the top right corner where the copper has been slightly bent and at the lower left corner where there is a rectangular loss measuring approximately 3 x 2 cm. on the side of the marble ledge. A further small damage is located at the top of the stone arch and there are a number of tiny losses in the dark background of the niche around the flowers as well as scattered around the outer border of the painting. Varnish coating The painting currently has a clear and silky resin 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."

This is an important rediscovered work by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, missing for almost eighty years, and only coming to light in Autumn 2011.

Laurens Bol, who was the first scholar to write in depth about Bosschaert, placed it in the artist's Utrecht period, from 1616 to 1619, solely on the basis of the description of it in the Hermitage catalogue.¹ Four other paintings by Bosschaert of flowers in glass vessels in stone niches are known, all of them from his Utrecht period:  formerly private collection, Egypt, formerly Eugene Slatter Gallery, London; Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst; The Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna (see fig. 1); and formerly Berlin, Th. Bauer.²   The Copenhagen picture is particularly similar to the present one in the architecture of the grey marble niche, and in both a fallen rose stem lies on the floor of the niche next to the glass vessel. Since it is dated 1618, a dating to the same year for this picture seems likely, as Fred Meijer has kindly concurred.³  Although in most respects a pioneer of flower painting in the Northern Netherlands, and a great innovator, Bosschaert probably borrowed the device of setting flowers in a glass vase in a stone niche from Roelandt Savery, who had being using it since at least 1603, and who settled in Utrecht in 1618, about two years after Bosschaert.  This lends further support for the dating of this work to that year: when he moved to Breda in 1619, Bosschaert replaced the niche device with the arched window-opening in which he set his flower-pieces before a distant landscape.

Bosschaert seems to have used similar glass beakers with prunts in works from around 1610 onwards, although unusually the prunts are here lavishly tipped with gold.  Blooms familiar to us from his repertoire are found in the present picture.  In other works, including the almost identical example in the Liechtenstein Museum picture, the composition is surmounted by a blue iris, whose vertical structure helps to fill the arch of the niche.  His beloved roses are found here, as are Lily-of-the-Valley, Forget-Me-Not, Narcissus, and, unusually, just one tulip.  Characteristic of Bosschaert, and an achievement unmatched among his followers, is the extraordinary denseness and complexity of the center of the composition, which as a result gives a wholly convincing expression of depth.  The massed blooms, leaves and stems are however ordered with an entirely coherent logic, so that the stem of the tulip can be followed down along a diagonal as it vanishes and reappears, then vanishes again before we find it seen through the glass of the beaker.

Provenance:
An inscription on the reverse in a 17^th century French hand:  Jean de Carpentier [?]; may record the name of an early owner.

It is not known when or how this picture entered the Russian Imperial collections housed in The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.  The earliest record of it is from the first Hermitage catalogue, published in 1773, when it was thought to be by Abraham Breughel, probably due to a misunderstanding of Bosschaert's monogram (the reverse of the copper bears an enlarged transcription of the monogram, with an inscription in a 19^th century hand: Abraham Breughel).  The attribution to Breughel was retained in the 1797, 1863 and 1870 catalogues, but by 1901, when a much more comprehensive catalogue was published with detailed descriptions of each painting and accurate transcriptions of signatures, Bosschaert's authorship had been recognised (in a copy of the 1797 catalogue kept in the Hermitage the entry for no. 930 is annotated "Bosschaert").  In the 1901 catalogue, acquisitions known to be have been made by the Empress Catherine the Great, and by subsequent Tsars from Paul I to Nicolas II, are marked with their Imperial cyphers, but this picture bears no such hieroglyph, suggesting that it entered the collection before the reign of Catherine the Great.

Laurens Bol, writing in 1960, states that the then director, Prof. Artamonov,  confirmed to him that the painting "no longer belongs to the State Museum in Leningrad.^"4  Sales of paintings and drawings took place from The Hermitage at the instigation of the Soviet government following a decision taken in 1928.  It would be an understatement to say that members of the curatorial staff were most unhappy about this initiative, undertaken to bolster the finances of the USSR, but the sales went ahead anyway, largely between 1930 and 1932, after which they ceased following disappointing results.  Some major paintings were sold to consortia of dealers, and both paintings and drawings were sold at auction: the paintings in sales at Lepke in Berlin, and the drawings at C.G. Boerner in Leipzig.  No Bosschaert is to be found in the Lepke sale catalogues, nor is one referred to in published accounts of the sales to consortia.  We are however grateful to Elena Solomakha, archivist at the Hermitage, who has kindly confirmed that an Ambrosius  Bosschaert, with no medium or measurements given, left The Hermitage on the 14 November 1932, and is listed as one of the paintings earmarked for sale.⁵  The present work is the only Bosschaert recorded in the collections of the Hermitage (or indeed in any Russian collection to the present day), and the inventory number cited by Dr. Solomakha: 1948; corresponds with that painted on the reverse of the present picture, thus confirming that they must be the same work.  Since Bosschaert was much less highly regarded in the first half of the 20^th Century than he is today, and he had not at that time been the subject of art-historical study, it is perhaps not surprising that no further trace of the picture has been found until recently; moreover, much documentation from before the Second World War was lost or destroyed.  While it is not known how it entered his collection, it is however certain that it was in the collection of the grandfather of the present owners.  Born circa 1880, he studied mining at the University of Clausthal-Zellerfeld.  From 1904 he worked as Königlich Preussischer Bergassesor and Handelsatteche (Trade Attaché) at the German embassy in St. Petersburg, and it is thought likely that he remained in this post until 1918. It may well be that he came to know this picture during his lengthy sojourn there.   After the end of the First World War he returned to Berlin, where, besides working as a mining superintendent, he became Director of the Fremdenpolizei (police force for foreigners).  He remained in the German Civil Service until 1933, when he was removed from his positions by the new regime, and began to work as a consultant to a number of international banks investing in the mining sector. During the course of this employment, he travelled widely on business: to Russia, China, Japan and the Americas.  In 1939 he returned to Germany where he worked within the German mining sector until 1945.  After the end of the Second World War, he was employed by the American Military Administration in Wiesbaden, where he died in 1947.  The present painting remained in Berlin in the possession of his descendants until the present day, although its identity as a work by Bosschaert was forgotten.

When consigned, this painting was covered in a layer of heavily discolored and very uneven varnish, which appeared to have flowed in streams down the painting's surface and then had coagulated and developed its own pattern of broad open craquelure, disfiguring the appearance of the painting.  It was found that the varnish was easily removable, and this work was undertaken by Simon Folkes, who uncovered a virtually undisturbed original paint surface underneath (see fig. 2, which shows the painting with all varnish and a few old retouchings removed).   

1.  See under Literature.
2.  See under Literature, pp. 64-5, nos. 32, 33, 34, 36,  reproduced plates 20, 21, 22.
3.  Opinion given verbally, based on first-hand inspection.
4.  See under Literature.
5.  Email dated 1^st December 2011.  The archival reference is: L'acte № 91с. (Les archives de l'Ermitage D'État, fond 1, serie 17, l'affaire 156, list 78).  We are further indebted to Dr Solomakha for tracing the painting back to the 1773 Hermitage catalogue.