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THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN ABRAHAM JANSZ. BEGEYN LEIDEN 1637/8 - 1697 BERLIN STILL LIFE OF FLOWERS, INCLUDING ROSES, TULIPS AND CHRYSANTHEMUMS, IN A STONE VASE WITH BUTTERFLIES AND A LIZARD

signed lower right: A. Bega

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Possibly Jacob Reynardson (1652-1719);
Samuel Reynardson (1704 - 1797), Holywell Hall, Lincolnshire;
Thence by descent to the present owner.
CATALOGUE NOTE

This is one of only two known signed flower still lifes by Begeyn. The other, rather smaller in size and with a much simpler arrangement of blooms, was sold in Monaco, Sotheby's, 29 November 1986, lot 331. The different and typically English canvas size would furthermore suggest that this still life may have been painted in England, where Begeyn had settled after 1672. He probably stayed only a decade or so as he is next recorded as working in The Hague by 1681. Begeyn's only securely documented works from his English period are a pair of paintings of plants (of which he evidently made something of a speciality) commissioned by the Countess of Dysart for Ham House in Surrey around 1674 and which remain in situ. This suggestion is further strengthened by the unbroken provenance of the present painting since the seventeenth century. It is thought that this painting and other Dutch works of ther same period by Van de Velde and Jan Wyck were acquired by Jacob Reynardson (1652-1719), thence passing to his son Samuel (1704-1797) of Holywell Hall in Lincolnshire.