Juan de Arellano

Still life of flowers, including tulips, iris and narcissi, in a glass vase

Lot Closed

July 8, 01:44 PM GMT

Estimate

50,000 - 70,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Collection of the late Baron Eden of Winton

Juan de Arellano

Santorcaz 1614 - 1676 Madrid

Still life of flowers, including tulips, iris and narcissi, in a glass vase

signed lower right: Juan de Arellano.

oil on canvas

unframed: 66.2 x 44.6 cm.; 26⅛ x 17⅝ in.

framed: 78.9 x 62 cm.; 31 x 24⅜ in.

Bought in Madrid by Sir William Eden, 6th Bt of West Auckland and 4th Bt of Maryland (1803-1873), Windlestone Hall, County Durham;
Thence by descent to John Eden, 9th Bt of West Auckland and 7th Bt of Maryland, Baron Eden of Winton (1925-2020).

Recorded in a nineteenth-century ms plan of the hang at Windlestone Hall, Catalogue of Pictures Windlestone, as hanging on the south side of the West Hall: ‘Flowers/ Arellano/ b. 1614/ d. 1679/ Madrid’;
Pictures, ms list, 19^th century (in Sir William Eden’s hand?), no. 19: ‘Arellano 1614–1676. Flower Piece/ Bought in Madrid by Sir William Eden, 6^th Bart.’;
Pictures at Windlestone, ms list, 1909, as hanging in the West Hall, no. 46: ‘Arellano’;
Catalogue of the Pictures at Windlestone, ms. list, n.d., no. 46: ‘Juan de Arellano (1614–1676)/ Flowers and Fruit’;
Manuscript notebook, early 20^th century and before 1922 (date when the Fabritius was purchased by the NACF), as hanging in the East Hall, no. 23 (crossed out and renumbered, ‘East Corridor no. 6’): ‘Flower Piece by Arellano 1614–1676 / Bought in Madrid by Sir William Eden, 6^th Bart.’

This painting is probably datable to the late 1660s, and may be compared to other works by the artist from those years, such as the still life sold at Sotheby's, New York, 3 June 2010, lot 43,¹ or the signed and dated works of 1668, both in a private collection, Madrid, in which sumptuous blooms are held in glass vases supported by similar, rough-hewn stone plinths.²Arellano was the foremost painter of still lifes in seventeenth-century Spain, influenced both by Flemish artists, notably Daniel Seghers (1590-1661), and Italians, such as Mario Nuzzi (1603-73), to create colourful and lavish compositions that are distinctively his own.

Sir William Eden, 6th Bt, bought the majority of his paintings during the time he spent on the Continent, mostly in Spain, where he acquired this still life in Madrid. In 1877, he was described as enjoying 'peculiar advantages for selecting examples of Spanish art', and Windlestone Hall as comprising 'a larger number of Spanish paintings than any other private gallery in England.'³ These included works by Murillo, Espinosa and Ribalta.

¹ https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2010/old-master-paintings-n08645/lot.43.html

² See A.E. Pérez Sánchez, Juan de Arellano 1614-1676, exh. cat., Madrid 1998, p. 188, cat. no. 34, and p. 192, cat. no. 36, both reproduced in colour.

³ ‘The Private Collections of England, No. XXX Windlestone Hall’, in The Athenaeum, no. 2599, 18 August 1877, p. 215.