Ferdinand Brueghel (Antwerp 1637-after 1662)

A bouquet of flowers with an iris, a carnation, an aster, an orange blossom, vetches, and roses in a handled glass jug, signed at lower left: H. F BREUG(HE) L, oil on canvas, 53 x 36 cm, framed

Certificate:
Dr. Klaus Ertz (February 2007).

Provenance:
sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 24 April 2007, lot 450;
private collection, Vienna.

Ferdinand Brueghel was the son of Jan Brueghel the Younger. Almost nothing is known about his life and career. Klaus Ertz in his certificate: “The painting to be assessed here is the second signed work by this artist known to me. I would also like to mention the first, in order to demonstrate that it shows the same hand as the other: Ferdinand Brueghel, A Garland of Flowers Enclosing a Stone Niche with a Female Figure and a Skull, signed HENRI FERINANDVS BREUGHEL, oil on canvas, 80 x 66 cm (sale, Christie’s, New York, 12 Jan. 1994, lot 227). These two signed compositions, whose painterly quality seems equal to that of comparable works by Jan Brueghel the Younger, are of great importance for art historical research into 17th-century Flemish painting, for from now on it will be possible to assign many a work to this painter that shows the same stylistic peculiarities. Moreover, this second painting has filled our knowledge of an artist who has previously merely been known through his name with life. Now there are at least two reliable examples that inform us about the painting style behind the name of Ferdinand Brueghel…”

Specialist: Dr. Alexander Strasoldo