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Mario Buatta: Prince of Interiors

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 256. JAN VAN OS | STILL LIFE OF VARIOUS FLOWERS ARRANGED IN A GLASS VASE WITH GOLDFISH, TWO BUTTERFLIES, AND OTHER INSECTS, ALL ON A STONE LEDGE.

JAN VAN OS | STILL LIFE OF VARIOUS FLOWERS ARRANGED IN A GLASS VASE WITH GOLDFISH, TWO BUTTERFLIES, AND OTHER INSECTS, ALL ON A STONE LEDGE

Auction Closed

January 25, 03:59 AM GMT

Estimate

60,000 - 80,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

JAN VAN OS

1744 - 1808

STILL LIFE OF VARIOUS FLOWERS ARRANGED IN A GLASS VASE WITH GOLDFISH, TWO BUTTERFLIES, AND OTHER INSECTS, ALL ON A STONE LEDGE


signed J. Van Os fecit. (lower center)

oil on panel

14⅞ by 11¼ in.; 37.8 by 28.5 cm

Christie's New York, 18 January 1984, lot 1

Acquired at the above sale

Jan van Os was the leading Dutch still life painter in the second half of the eighteenth century. He studied with Aert Schouman in The Hague and was an independent master there by 1773. Though he also painted landscapes and seascapes, Van Os was famed for his opulent and minutely observed fruit and flower still lifes in the tradition of his countryman Jan van Huysum (1682–1749).


In the present example, van Os has characteristically set his still life on a stone ledge, beyond which can be seen as an architectural structure in a landscape. He has interestingly arranged a variety of flowers in a glass goldfish bowl, against which reflects the colors of the surrounding foliage. This goldfish bowl appears in other examples by the artist, including a still life in an English private collection1 and another still life recently sold at Sotheby's London.2  


We are grateful to Dr. Fred G. Meijer for endorsing the attribution to Jan van Os after first-hand inspection.


1. See P. Mitchell, Jan van Os, 1744–1808, Leigh-on-Sea 1968, p. 21, cat. no. 20, reproduced pl. 20.

2. Anonymous sale ('Property from a European Private Collection'), London, Sotheby's, 5 July 2017, lot 58 (sold for £100,000). Oil on oak panel, 38 by 31 cm, signed lower left.