A Vase with Flowers

In this early example of flower painting in the Netherlands a bouquet of rare flowers is arranged in an earthenware pot that is set into a large stone niche. The panel has been trimmed on both sides and cut down at the top by nearly a quarter of the composition's original height (see Mahon 1993/94). The picture's design was originally quite similar to that of Vosmaer's Still Life of Flowers with a Fritillary in a Stone Niche (private collection Amsterdam) which shows an ample volume of space around the pot of flowers and the curved wall of the niche advancing in sunlight to the chipped edge of a wall on the right. This frontal element the worn stone sill at the bottom and the strong shadows cast by flowers on the pot and by the bouquet on the background create a sense of illusionistic space to a degree rarely found in contemporary Dutch or Flemish flower pictures.