Assorted flowers in a bowl atop a decorative pedestal surrounded by fruits; and Assorted flowers in a basket atop a decorative pedestal surrounded by fruits and a monkey

Pieter Casteels III departed Antwerp with his brother-in-law, the sporting painter Peter Tillemans, for England in 1708, rapidly ascending within London's artistic community. After a brief return to Antwerp in 1712, the year he became a member in the city's painters guild, Casteels settled permanently in England in 1717, where he gained fame for his decorative depictions of flowers and exotic birds. He more or less retired from painting in 1735, becoming a calico-manufacturer and residential artist, first at Merton Abbey near Tooting, Surrey, and later in Richmond.
The present pair of paintings must have been among the works that Casteels painted at Merton (variously Marten, Martin and Marton) Abbey, as indicated by the inscription appended to the painting dated 1738. The abbey had been founded by King Henry I along the River Wandle, and two calico-printing factories were established on the site in the 18th century. Though the patron for these paintings is not known, they may have been created to adorn Merton Place, then in the possession of the Dorrill family, which on 15 September 1801 was acquired by Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson and 1st Duke of Bronté, on the advice of his mistress, Emma Hamilton, and her husband, Sir William Hamilton.