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One of the most prominent Dutch still-life painters during the
later 17th century. A pupil of his uncle Evert van Aelst, he entered
the guild at Delft at the age of 17. At 20 he undertook an international
journey that took him to Paris, Florence (where he worked for Ferdinand
II de’ Medici, Grandduke of Tuscany) and Rome. His work was highly
regarded in Italy, and he adopted the name Guillielmo d’Olanda.
According to Houbraken he returned to Delft in 1656, later settling
in Amsterdam. Van Aelst painted ‘breakfast pieces’ and game and
fruit still-lifes, but is best known for his flower pieces.
In a long line of specialist flower painters - Jacob de Gheyn,
Jan Brueghel, Ambrosius Bosschaert and Balthasar van der Ast - Van
AeIst was the first to introduce asymmetrical arrangements. This
eventually was to lead to the rococo abandon of Rachel Ruysch (thought
to be a pupil of Van Aelst) and Jan van Huysum. Our painting is
strongly related to (though it is considerably larger than) the
celebrated Van AeIst Flower still-life with a watch in the
Mauritshuis, The Hague (dated 1663 ) and a painting with the same
subject and of the same date in the H.M. de Young Memorial Museum,
San Francisco (Inv. no. 51.21). In all three paintings the vase
is of a design associated with the work of Johannes Lutma (1584?-1669),
with grotesque fish heads in a late-Mannerist style known as the
‘Auricular style’. The opened gold watch with blue ribbon lying
next to the vase also appears in the other two paintings, as well
as in a painting, dated 1658, sold in New York in 1996 and described
as ‘Dutch and made of gold and rock crystal’ and dating from 1630
40’s. In all these paintings, these objects are set on a marble
table top.
Despite their similarities, the paintings show subtle variations
in the arrangement of the flowers. In our painting the main compositional
motif is a long strand of flowers from the rose on the table to
the poppy at the top. The obvious dominance of the decorative element
of the painting does not obscure the vanitas symbolism, which
includes the watch, the dragonfly, the butterfly and some shrivelled
or insect-eaten leaves all reminding the viewer of the transience
of life. Our painting bears two dates: 1660 and (painted out but
slowly reappearing) 1659. Presumably the artist finished the painting
in 1659 but did more work on it the next year.
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