Flowers in a Glass

Bosschaert painted Flowers in a Glass in 1606, at the beginning of the Dutch Golden Age of still life painting. He was 33 years old and working in Middelburg, a prosperous trading city in Zeeland, where he had established himself as the first specialist painter of flower still lifes in the Netherlands. Flowers in a Glass is one of his earliest dated works, and it is one of the first independent flower still lifes in European painting. The painting shows a glass vase filled with flowers: a tulip, a rose, a lily, an iris, and several smaller blooms. The flowers are arranged in a tight, symmetrical bouquet, with each flower facing the viewer. The glass vase is painted with the precision of a goldsmith, with the light reflecting off the surface in small, bright highlights. A few insects are visible on the leaves and petals: a butterfly, a caterpillar, and a fly. The background is dark, which makes the flowers stand out in sharp relief. Bosschaert was the first painter to make flower still lifes as independent works of art, rather than as elements of larger compositions. Before Bosschaert, flowers appeared in paintings as attributes of saints or as decoration in the background of portraits. Bosschaert made the flowers the subject, and he painted them with a precision and a care that had previously been reserved for religious subjects. His paintings were collected by the wealthy merchants of Middelburg, who had made their fortunes in the tulip trade and who wanted images of the flowers they were buying and selling. The painting is on copper, not canvas or panel. Copper was an expensive support, used for small, highly finished paintings where the smooth surface of the metal allowed for precise detail. Bosschaert was one of the first painters to use copper for flower still lifes, and the medium became standard for the genre in the first half of the 17th century. Oil on copper, 31 by 23 centimeters. Bosschaert painted with a fine, precise touch, building each flower in thin, even layers of color. The tulip is painted in strokes of red and white, with the stripes described in fine lines of dark red. The rose is painted in layers of pink and white, with the petals built in concentric rings. The glass vase is painted in thin strokes of gray and white, with the reflections indicated by small dots of pure white. The insects are painted in tiny strokes of brown and black, with the wings described in lines of translucent color. The vertical format and bright palette make this print work well in a living room, bedroom, or hallway. The reds, pinks, blues, and whites pair with white walls, natural wood, and rooms with a traditional or floral character. The 11x14 or 16x20 size is the best choice, as the original is small and the detail is fine. The painting has a precise, luminous quality that suits rooms with a refined or decorative mood. The painting entered the Cleveland Museum of Art with funds from the Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund. This is a CC0 artwork from the Cleveland Museum of Art. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed.