(Olmütz/Moravia 1566 - 1638 Frankfurt) A still life with a bouquet of flowers and glass goblets, oil on canvas, 43 x 53.5 cm framed

The present painting holds a prominent position in Flegel’s oeuvre, due to the objects depicted, the composition in general, and the delicacy of execution. It is a slightly altered variant of the still life in the National Gallery in Prauge, which differs from the present original also in its dimensions (92 x 62 cm, Inv. No. 1451). Literature: Kurt Wettengl, Georg Flegel – Stilleben, exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt am Main 1993, p. 108, no. 22, repr.; Kurt Wettengl, Georg Flegel – Stilleben, 1999, pp. 107–8, repr.; Anne-Dore Ketelsen-Volkhardt, Georg Flegel, Monographie mit Werkkatalog, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich-Berlin 2003, pp. 276–77, fig. 67; Hanna Seifertova, Georg Flegel, exhibition catalogue, Düsseldorf 1995, p. 44, no. 1, repr. Exhibited: Georg Flegel, Historisches Museum, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main 1993, p. 108, no. 22, repr. Certificate: Ingvar Bergström, 24 May 1989, as an “important, characteristic work by Georg Flegel” (photocopy). Provenance: Gallery Rafael Valls, London, 1993/94 (catalogue Recent Acquisitions); private property, France; from the estate of a prominent North German lawyer Flegel was working in the workshop of the Netherlandish painter Lucas van Valckenborch in Linz as early as the 1580s, where he was employed as a “staffage painter”, which means that he added fruit, vegetables, and flowers to large-format compositions of banquets, market scenes, and garden pictures. Around 1592/93, the workshop was transferred to the rich commercial city of Frankfurt am Main, a leading place for tradefairs, where Flegel was granted citizenship in 1597 and remained for the rest of his life. Around 1600, Flegel devoted himself entirely to this rising genre, collaborating extensively with the Fleming Lucas van Valckenborch. He produced more than seventy still lifes and over 110 watercolours. Flegel is considered the most important representative of early modern still life painting in Germany, who developed a style of his own under Netherlandish influence.