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

Provenance: Gallery Rafael Valls, London, 1993/94 (catalogue: Recent Aquisitions); from the estate of a prominent lawyer, Northern Germany.

Exhibited: Georg Flegel, Historisches Museum, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt a. M. 1993, p.108, no. 22, repr.

Literature: Kurt Wettengl, Georg Flegel – Stilleben, exh. cat., Frankfurt a. M. 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, 2003, Deutscher Kunstverlag München-Berlin, pp. 276/77, fig. 67; Hanna Seifertova, Georg Flegel, exh. cat., Düsseldorf 1995, p. 44, no. 1, repr.

Certificate: Ingvar Bergström, 24 May 1989, as an “important, characteristic work by Georg Flegel” (in photocopy).

As to the objects depicted here, the work’s composition, and the delicacy of its execution, the present painting holds an exceptional position in Flegel’s oeuvre. It is a slightly altered version of the still life in the National Gallery of Prague, from which the present original also deviates in terms of size (Prague National Gallery, inv. no. 1451). From the 1580s on, Flegel worked in the workshop of the Netherlandish painter Lucas van Valckenborch in Linz, where he was active as a ‘staffage painter’ addding fruit, vegetables, and flowers to such large compositions as banquet, market, or garden scenes. In 1592/93 the workshop moved to the wealthy commercial town of Frankfurt am Main. Flegel became a citizen in 1597 and remained there until the end of his life. Around 1600 the artist fully adopted the newly emerging genre of still life, collaborating closely with the Fleming Lucas van Valckenborch. He created more than seventy still lifes on canvas and over 110 watercolours. Flegel is considered the most important exponent of early modern still-life painting in Germany, having developed his very personal style under the influence of Netherlandish art.

Provenance: Gallery Rafael Valls, London, 1993/94 (catalogue: Recent Aquisitions); from the estate of a prominent lawyer, Northern Germany. Exhibited: Georg Flegel, Historisches Museum, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt a. M. 1993, p.108, no. 22, repr. Literat