Hans Bollongier

Still life with tulips, anemones and other flowers in a vase, on a stone ledge

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July 7, 01:42 PM GMT

Estimate

15,000 - 20,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from a Dutch Private Collection

Hans Bollongier

Haarlem 1598/1602 - 1672/75

Still life with tulips, anemones and other flowers in a vase, on a stone ledge

signed with monogram and dated lower right: HB. 1672

oil on paper laid down on panel, unframed

38.7 x 29 cm.; 15½ x 11½ in.

With Gallery Pintelon, Aalst, by February 1988 (when exhibited at the 33rd Antiques Fair, Brussels);
With Abraham van der Meer (1927–2008), Amsterdam, by November 1990 (when exhibited at Ars Antique, Frankfurt);
Thence by descent.

A. Willigen and F. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters working in Oils, 1525–1725, Leiden 2003, p. 41.

This hitherto unrecorded work by Hans Bollongier, dating from 1672, is one of his last known dated works, characteristic of his mature period and an excellent example of the artist working at the height of his powers. Works from his later years are characterised by a much looser handling, contrasting with the thinly applied paint of his earlier works.

Little is known about the life of Bollongier other than that he worked as a still-life painter in Haarlem, becoming a member of the Guild of St. Luke in 1623. He stands out in the history of Dutch still-life painting as he appears to have had no rivals in Haarlem in his field. He was much celebrated during his lifetime for his carefully composed and intricately painted bouquets of flowers, bearing the influence of the leading still-life painter of the period, Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (1573–1621). He chiefly specialised in floral bouquets, often arranged, as is the case in the present picture, in a small glass vase, achieving a grand composition on a reduced scale.