Garland of Flowers

Jan Baptist Bosschaert painted large, decorative flower pieces in the Flemish tradition: roses, tulips and carnations spilling from carved stone vases, and garlands of flowers wreathed around a central religious or mythological scene. His work is showier and more sweeping than the tight flower pieces of the early 1600s, made for the grand interiors of the late Baroque. He was baptised in Antwerp in 1667, trained as a flower painter under Jan Baptist de Crépu from 1685, and became a master in the Antwerp painters’ guild in 1692 to 1693. He often worked with other artists, such as Jacob Leyssens and Peeter-Frans Bailliu, who painted the figures, vases and grisaille reliefs while he supplied the flowers. He died in Antwerp in 1746. Relatively few signed works are known, and many of his paintings are in private collections. Garland of Flowers is an example of the garland pictures for which Antwerp was famous.