Jan Brueghel II (Antwerp 1601–1678) and Frans Francken II (Antwerp 1581–1642)
Mixed flowers in a carved and gilded vase,
oil on panel, 116 x 91 cm, framed

The painting is accompanied by a certificate from Dr. Klaus Ertz.

After the death of his father, Jan Brueghel the Younger took over his studio, following in the tracks of Jan the Elder’s unmistakable style until about 1635. Only after this period did he arrive at his own painting style, which distinctly differs from that of his father in the colouring and summary treatment of detail. This autonomous style, which was largely independent of that of his father, already announces itself in the overall conception of the present bouquet of flowers, with the dominant, large forms of the individual blossoms clearly distinguishable from his father’s work in the temperamental brushstrokes. Nevertheless, and with the present flower painting in particular, Jan Brueghel the Younger, who is probably unjustly seen to have been outshone by his father throughout his life, demonstrates that there was hardly another painter at the time who was able to reach Jan the Elder’s quality level.
Ertz compares the present painting to the following works by Jan Brueghel the Younger: Bouquet of Flowers in a Wooden Tub (Alte Pinakothek, Munich, c. 1620); 2. Bouquet of Flowers in a Sculpted Earthenware Vase (Institute of Art, Detroit, c. 1626); 3. Bouquet of Flowers in an Earthenware Vase (Villa Poggio Imperiale, Florence, late 1620s).
As a second example for which Jan Brueghel the Younger collaborated with Frans Francken II and in which Francken also painted the sculpted stone vase, Ertz mentions a Bouquet of Flowers in a Sculpted Vase from c. 1618 in a private collection in Berlin.