Lille 1636 - 1699 London

A still life of roses, convolvulus, Canterbury bells and other flowers in a silver and parcel-gilt vase on a stone ledge

Canvas: 20 ¼ x 24 ½ in / 51.4 x 62.3 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, England

Exhibited:

London, Leonard Koetser Gallery, 1958, no.20

This painting displays Monnoyer’s creamy impasto and luxurious sense of the weight and textures of flowers. The blooms emerge into light from a dramatic dark background and the serpentine line of the composition seems ruffled by a breeze.

Monnoyer painted another bouquet of flowers in the same vase on a very similar stone ledge, probably once a pendent to the present work (Tulips, bluebells, lily-of-the-valley and other flowers in a silver vase on a stone ledge, canvas 19 ½ x 24 ½ in; exhibited David Koetser, London, 1959, no.5). In the present work, light illuminates the most prominent flowers in a rippling line from top right to bottom left; in the Tulips, bluebells etc. painting, light falls from top left to bottom right, with a strongly-lit tulip in the right foreground. Although Monnoyer mixes blooms that flower at different times, the use of early spring flowers (tulips, bluebells, lily-of-the-valley) in one painting and late spring/summer flowers, such as the abundance of roses, in the present work, suggests that a Spring/Summer pair of pendants might have been intended.

Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer is famed for his decorative flowerpieces, found in many country houses in France and England. Born in Lille in 1636, Monnoyer first studied in Antwerp, before going to Paris where he rapidly established his reputation. In 1665 he was accepted as a member of the Academy; in 1673 he exhibited four paintings at the Salon.

Patronized by Le Brun, Louis XIV's Minister of Arts, Monnoyer was employed to decorate the royal palaces at Versailles, Vincennes, Trianon, Meudon and Marly. He also designed floral motifs and borders for the Gobelins and Beauvais tapestry works.

In 1678 the Duke of Montagu, British Ambassador to Louis XIV, persuaded Monnoyer to accompany him to England, where he won immediate acclaim, painting flowerpieces and still lifes to adorn the homes of the aristocracy. His works decorated Boughton, Montagu House (now the site of the British Museum), Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace and Hampton Court; his patrons included Queen Mary, the Duke of St. Albans and the Earl of Carlisle. A number of engravings were made after Monnoyer's paintings, extending his reputation beyond the circle of his aristocratic patrons.

During his prolific career, Monnoyer executed easel paintings and designs for overdoors and overmantels; his works show an awareness of Flemish and Italian baroque flower paintings, imbued with a French delicacy and an all-pervasive freshness of vision.

The work of Monnoyer is represented at Versailles; Hampton Court; the Hermitage, St Petersburg; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Louvre, Paris; the Musee Fabre, Montpellier and the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen.