Juan de Arellano

Private collection, Barcelona, by 1998;

Believed to have been acquired by the present owner shortly thereafter.

Zaragoza, Museo e Instituto Camón Aznar, Jusepe Martínez y su tiempo, 1982, no. 5 (the second only);

Madrid, Fundación Caja: Juan de Arellano 1614-1676, May - June 1998, nos. 44- 45.

J.L. Morales Marín, in Jusepe Martínez y su tiempo, exhibition catalogue, Zaragoza 1982, p. 36, no. 5;

M. Duque Oliart, 'Pintura de flores: La obra de Juan de Arellano' in Goya, Madrid 1986, p. 275, reproduced figs. 11 & 12;

A. E. Pérez Sánchez, Juan de Arellano, 1614-1676, exhibition catalogue, Madrid 1998, pp. 209-10, nos. 44 & 45, reproduced.

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Structural Condition The canvases have both been lined and have keyed wooden stretchers. The linings are ensuring even and secure structural supports and have successfully secured an overall craquelure pattern which is slight and certainly not visually distracting. Paint Surface The paint surfaces have even varnish layers and inspection under ultraviolet light shows scattered retouchings on both paint surfaces. These retouchings appear larger than is really necessary and I am sure that they could be reduced were the paint surfaces to be cleaned and then more minimally retouched. There are retouchings on and around the flowers and leaves and in the tabletops and scattered retouchings in the backgrounds. The paint surfaces therefore appear to be in essentially good and stable condition and while no further work is required for reasons of conservation the retouchings could be reduced if required. Summary The paint surfaces therefore appear to be in essentially good and stable condition and while no further work is required for reasons of conservation the retouchings could be reduced if required.
"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."

"...by studying flowers from nature, he came to render them so superlatively that no other Spaniard surpassed him in eminence in this ability…"  Antonio Palomino

 

Operating from a shop in front of La Iglesia de San Felipe el Real in Madrid, Juan de Arellano rose from modest beginnings to become the greatest flower still life painter of the Spanish Golden Age. This present pair is an outstanding example of the artist’s floreros de cristal and can be dated on stylistic grounds to the height of his artistic powers, during the last decade of his life, circa 1665-70. The superb quality of the paintings is underscored by their inclusion in the seminal exhibition on the artist held in Madrid in 1998, curated by the late Professor Alfonso Pérez Sánchez.

 

Pérez Sánchez dated the paintings circa 1665–70, at a time when the more restrained floral arrangements and limited palette of the artist’s earlier output gave way to a greater exuberance and abundance in the design of the still lifes, along with a greater use of primary colours. In the present scenes the artist uses a dazzling array of red, blue, yellow and white blooms, configured in an animated but perfect equilibrium. The fall of light from right to left defines the beautifully rendered softness of the petals and illuminates the inside of the glass vases in which the web of green storks can be observed within a solution of water flooded with light. The artist has created a bold gradation of dark shadows on the left of the scenes to the clear grey backgrounds on the right against which the outer reaches of the floral arrangements are beautifully silhouetted to create a heightened sense of space behind the floral arrangement and three-dimensionality to the still life elements. The sense of illusion is indeed remarkable.