Balthasar van der Ast (Middelburg 1593/94-1657 Delft)

Dictamnus, also called Fraxinella (Dictamnus albus)

Details

Balthasar van der Ast (Middelburg 1593/94-1657 Delft)
Dictamnus, also called Fraxinella (Dictamnus albus)
signed with initials, the letters interlaced, inscribed 'Fractsinella' and with number '214' (on an added strip of paper at lower left)
watercolour, watermark Basel Crozier
31.4 x 20.1 cm.

Provenance

Dirk Vis Blokhuyzen (1799-1869); Lamme, Rotterdam, 29 April-1 May 1872.
J. van Driesten, Leiden.

Literature

I. Bergström, Holländskt stillebenmalerei under 1600-talet, Göteborg, 1947, p. 298, note 71 (as Bartholomeus Assteyn).
L.J. Bol, 'Bartholomeus Assteyn', Oud Holland, LXVIII, 1953, p. 140, note 24 (as Bartholomeus Assteyn).
L.J. Bol, Bekoring van het kleine, 1963, under no. 24 (as Bartholomeus Assteyn).
L.C.J. Frerichs and P. Schatborn, De verzameling H. van Leeuwen, exhib. cat., Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet, 1975-76, p. 13, under no. 10 (as Bartholomeus Assteyn).

Exhibited

Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, Amsterdam, Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap, Bekoring van het kleine, 1959-60, no. 5 (as Bartholomeus Assteyn).
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Paris, Fondation Custodia, and Brussels, Bibliothèque Albert 1er, Le Cabinet d'un Amateur: Dessins flamands et hollandais des XVIe et XVIIe siècles d'une collection privée d'Amsterdam, 1976-77, no. 7, pl. 117 (as Bartholomeus Assteyn; catalogue by J. Giltaij).

Brought to you by

Harriet West

hwest@christies.com +442073892541

Lot Essay

This drawing was once part of an album of at least 483 sheets, of which 71 sheets are in an album at the Fondation Custodia, Paris (inv. 6534). Until Michiel Plomp attributed these to this group to van der Ast in 2001, they were given to Bartholomeus Assteyn (1607-after 1667) (M. Plomp, in Vermeer and the Delft School, exhib. cat., New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001, p. 445). According to Plomp the attribution to Assteyn should be dismissed on the basis of the exceptional quality of the drawings and the fact that several of them can be connected to paintings by van der Ast, and none of them to paintings by Assteyn. Like most drawings from the group, this sheet bears the inscription 'BA' and the name of the depicted flower ('Fractsinella').

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