Still Life of Flowers in a Stoneware Vase
JAN BRUEGHEL THE ELDER
A masterwork by the artist who pioneered floral still-life painting in the Southern Netherlands, this canvas gathers irises, tulips, fritillaria, roses and narcissi in a humble stoneware vase, each bloom glowing against a dark background. Insects and a beetle animate the flowers, while loose petals and strawberries scatter across the table below. Brueghel painted such bouquets from life over many months, waiting for each species to flower in turn, and his tender, luminous touch earned him the nickname ‘Velvet Brueghel.’
Once owned by Baron Alphonse de Rothschild, the painting was seized by the Nazis in 1939, and held for decades in Prague’s Národní Galerie, before its restitution in 2016. It later toured on loan to the National Gallery of Canada and Art Gallery of Ontario. The work stands as one of the finest expressions of Brueghel’s botanical precision and painterly grace.
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JAN BRUEGHEL THE ELDER
Still Life of Flowers in a Stoneware Vase
- ca. 1607 – 1608
- Oil on panel
- 67 x 51 cm / 26 3/8 x 20 1/8 in 89.5 x 75 x 4.5 cm / 35 1/4 x 29 1/2 x 1 3/4 in (framed) Dutch Baroque frame, 17th Century ripple moulding frame, fruit wood delicately profiled and darkened, with soft reverse section profile
‘Then when winter encumbers and restricts everything with ice, I have enjoyed from sight—and even imagined odor [...] flowers... expressed in painting.’
Cardinal Federico Borromeo, 1628
Flora Yukhnovich
As part of our booth presentation, London-based, contemporary artist Flora Yukhnovich unveils a new painting, made in direct response to and shown alongside the 16th- and 17th-century Flemish painter Jan Brueghel the Elder’s masterpiece ‘Still Life of Flowers in a Stoneware Vase’ (ca. 1607 – 1608). Entering into a dialogue between past and present, Yukhnovich has attracted critical admiration for immersive works in which glimpses of art historical styles, from French rococo and Italian baroque to abstract expressionism, are spliced with references drawn from contemporary films, music, literary sources and consumer culture.
Jan Brueghel the Elder’s iconic ‘Still Life of Flowers in a Stoneware Vase’ will be presented by the gallery at Frieze Masters 2026 in London.
