Flowers in a Glass Vase

? Haarlem, 1674

Object data

point of brush and watercolour, with some opaque watercolour; framing line in black ink

height 313 mm × width 201 mm

Inscriptions

signed: lower right, in grey ink, 1674 6/2 D De Braij
inscribed on verso: upper left, by Röver, in brown ink (partially trimmed), [X]X-VII / XI.; lower left, by Johann Edler Goll von Franckenstein, in red ink, N. 2660. (L. 2987); below that, in an eighteenth- or nineteenth-century hand, in black ink, 140
stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: letters, PD; cf. Laurentius, II, no. 98 (The Hague: 1665)

Condition

Foxing

Provenance

...; ? sale, Samuel van Huls (1655-1734, The Hague), The Hague (J. Swart), 14 May 1736 sqq., Album UUU, no. 3717 (‘Une Bouteille avec des Fleurs, par de Bray’); ...; collection Valerius Röver (1686-1739), Delft; his widow, Cornelia van der Dussen (1689-1762), Delft;¹ from whom acquired, en bloc, fl. 20,500 by the dealer Hendrik de Leth (1696-1766), Amsterdam;² from whom acquired by Johann Edler Goll von Franckenstein (1722-85), Amsterdam (L. 2987); his son, Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein (1756-1821), Amsterdam (L. 2987); his son, Jonkheer Pieter Hendrik Goll van Franckenstein (1787-1832), Amsterdam; sale, Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein, Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 1 July 1833 sqq., Album B, no. 10, with one other drawing, fl. 13 for both, to ‘Hulswit’;³ ...; sale, Benoît Coster (?-c. 1875, Arnhem and Amsterdam), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 18 March 1875 sqq., no. 22, fl. 13, to ‘Van der Kellen’;⁴ ...; acquired by the museum (L. 2228), 1879⁵

Object number: RP-T-1879-A-15

The artist

Dirck de Bray (Haarlem c. 1635 – 1694 Goch)

He was the youngest surviving son of the painter-architect Salomon de Bray (1597-1664) and his wife, Anna Westerbaen (1605-1663). His brothers Jan de Bray (c. 1627-1697) and Joseph de Bray (c. 1628/34-1664) were also artists.

After having trained as a bookbinder, presumably in the workshop of Hans Passchiers van Wesbusch II (active 1649-1665), Dirck de Bray was admitted to the Haarlem Guild of St Luke in 1658.⁶ The earliest dated object related to the artist is a manuscript booklet entitled ‘Kort onderweijs van het boeckenbinden’ (‘Brief manual to the art of book binding’), preserved in the Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem (inv. no. Stell. 21 B 201 (HS 201)); inscribed with the date 1658, it is decorated with sixteen small drawings showing scenes from a bookbinder’s workshop. On 5 September 1671 Dirck is appointed secretary of the Guild. No further activities within the Guild are recorded, but in a group portrait of officers of the Guild, dated 1675, also in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. SK-A-58),⁷ the artist was portrayed by his brother, Jan. Dirck, in his turn, painted the likeness of his brother in that same picture.
Around 1680, Dirck gave up his artistic career to become a lay brother at the monastery of Gaesdonck in Goch, although he remained active as a bookbinder.⁸

The body of works that can be securely attributed to Dirck de Bray is modest, no doubt owing to the brevity of his artistic career. Very little can be said about his draughtsmanship, given the strong stylistic similarities that characterize the drawings of the various family members. It is likely that Dirck, like his brothers, was involved in the studio practice of making ricordi or drawn copies of paintings by his father and brother Jan.⁹ Dirck’s skill at making refined and detailed chalk drawings is attested by a signed black chalk copy, preserved in the De Grez collection, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels (inv. no. 459), which records an untraced portrait of his maternal uncle Joan Westerbaen (1600-1686).¹⁰ Another drawn ricordo, tentatively attributed to Dirck by Giltaij and Lammertse and now in a private collection,¹¹ is a rendering in black and red chalk, with grey wash, of his father Salomon’s painting Joseph Receiving his Brothers in Egypt, also in a private collection.¹²

Dirck de Bray made several woodcuts and etchings, both after his own designs and after those of his brother Jan. The Noord-Hollands Archief holds six drawings in pen and brown ink, with grey wash – two of which served as designs for prints.¹³ His prints were intended mainly for title-pages and book illustrations. He also produced at least eleven rare, but accomplished paintings and watercolours of (flower) still-lives dated between 1665 and 1680.¹⁴

Saskia van Altena, 2021

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), p. 177; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, I, pp. 173-74; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, IV (1910), p. 554; J.W. von Moltke, ‘Jan de Bray’, Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 11/12 (1938-39), p. 432; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, III (1950), pp. 185-90; B. Haak, Hollandse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam 1984, p. 392; J. Giltaij and F. Lammertse, ‘Maintaining a Studio Archive: Drawn Copies by the De Braij Family’, Master Drawings 39 (2001), no. 4, pp. 367-94; J.W. von Moltke, “De Bray family” (2003), Grove Art Online, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T011005; H. Leeflang, ‘De verfijnde prentkunst van Dirck de Bray’, _Kunstschrift (2007), no. 1, pp. 42-46; F.C. Meijer, ‘Joseph and Dirck de Bray: Painters of Still-lives’, in P. Biesboer et al., Painting Family: The De Brays, Master Painters of 17th-century Holland, exh. cat. Haarlem (Frans Hals Museum)/London (Dulwich Picture Gallery) 2008, pp. 28-33; J. Giltaij, Jan de Braij (1626/1627-1697). Schilder en architect, Zwolle 2017, pp. 19-21, 47; RKD Artists, https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/12192

Entry

Dirck de Bray was originally trained as a bookbinder, although he started making drawings in the mid-1650s.¹⁵ However, his interest in still-life must have developed much later. His earliest known flower painting, dated 1665 and now in the Kremer Collection,¹⁶ may have been left unfinished by his brother Joseph de Bray (c. 1628/34-1664), a specialist in still-life painting who died tragically young. Unlike fellow still-life artists who artificially composed their still-lives from flowers from different seasons, De Bray must have worked from life, for his groupings of flowers all bloom at the same time of year. For instance, in the present drawing, dated 2 June 1674 in the precise way common to all members of the De Bray family, he depicted a bouquet of flowers that indeed reach their peak in early June, such as yellow iris, peony, anemone, morning glory and columbine, as well as boxwood and daisy (on the table in front of the vase).

Dirck de Bray was an ardent Catholic, who after 1678 became a monk and joined the monastery of Gaesdonck near Goch. Given this background, it may be that he chose flowers with symbolic meanings. Four of the specimens in this still-life were regarded as symbols of the Virgin (yellow iris, peony, columbine and boxwood).¹⁷ The glass vase may be another allusion to purity and virginity.¹⁸

An autograph replica of the present sheet is in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (KdZ 12444); it is the only other known drawn flower still-life by De Bray.¹⁹ In both versions, De Bray worked with the point of brush, building up the petals with minute parallel lines, at the same time reflecting the delicate structure of the respective blossoms. The Berlin drawing differs only in the arrangement of leaves – some added, some slightly larger – and in the somewhat lighter colours as can best be seen in the glass vase and the yellow iris. The colours in the present sheet have apparently darkened, possibly a consequence of a layer of varnish, possibly egg-white, applied to give added depth to the watercolour medium. The Berlin version also dates from 1676, but without a specific month and day, suggesting that the replica may have been made later in the course of the year.

Annemarie Stefes, 2019

Literature

V. Röver, Catalogus. Boeken, schilderijen, tekeningen, printen, beelden, rariteiten, s.l., 1730 (MS., Amsterdam University Library, shelfmark MS II A 18), Album 27, no. 11 (‘Een fles met bloemen zeer konstig van de Braij 1674’); R. Priem et al., Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art: Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum, exh. cat. Vancouver (Vancouver Art Gallery) 2009, p. 61 (entry adapted from an unpublished text by M. Schapelhouman); H. Bevers, Aus Rembrandts Zeit: Zeichenkunst in Hollands Goldenem Jahrhundert, exh. cat. Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett) 2011-12, pp. 100-01, under no. 70

Citation

A. Stefes, 2019, 'Dirck de Bray, Flowers in a Glass Vase, Haarlem, 1674-06-02', in J. Turner (ed.), (under construction) Drawings 2, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200119006

(accessed 7 December 2025 00:37:13).