Object data
oil on panel
support: height 59 cm × width 43 cm
frame: height 75.8 cm × width 59.8 cm
Balthasar van der Ast
Still Life with Flowers
c. 1625 - c. 1630
Inscriptions
- signature, bottom left: . B.vander.Ast ..
Technical notes
The support is a single oak panel with a vertical grain. The panel is covered with a calcium carbonate ground and primed with a yellow ochre layer that shows through the paint layers. Infrared reflectography revealed a detailed underdrawing, probably drawn with a pen, on top of the imprimatura (fig. a). While most of the flowers were reserved in the background, some of them were painted over it. The paint was applied in thin layers. (The painting was examined in a climate box.)
Scientific examination and reports
- infrared reflectography: M. Wolters, RKD, 2 November 1998
- paint samples: A. Wallert, RMA, nos. R 45/1-7, 18 December 1998
- technical report: G. Tauber, RMA, 3 March 2003
Literature scientific examination and reports
Wallert et al. in Amsterdam 1999, pp. 56-59
Condition
Fair. The paint surface is somewhat abraded and the grain of the wood shows through the paint layers. The paint has become transparent, especially in the light-coloured flowers.
Provenance
...; ? collection the Van Citters family;1 by descent to Arnoldus Andries des Tombe (1818-1902), The Hague; by whom bequeathed to the museum, 1903; on loan to the Noordbrabants Museum, ’s-Hertogenbosch, since 2002
Object number: SK-A-2103
Credit line: A.A. des Tombe Bequest, The Hague
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Balthasar van der Ast (Middelburg c. 1593/94 - Delft 1657)
From documents that show he was under the guardianship of his brother until 1617/18, it has been deduced that Balthasar van der Ast was born around 1593/94, probably in Middelburg. After his father’s death in 1609 he went to live with his sister Maria, who had married the flower painter Ambrosius Bosschaert in 1604. Bosschaert was Van der Ast’s teacher. It is assumed that Van der Ast left Middelburg together with him, since both men are recorded as living in Bergen op Zoom in 1615, and subsequently moved to Utrecht. In 1619, Van der Ast entered the Utrecht guild as a masterpainter. He painted still lifes of flowers, fruit and shells, of which some 200 are known. His earliest dated paintings are from 1617; only a few are dated after 1625. In 1632, Van der Ast settled in Delft, where he married and spent the rest of his life. In his famous list of painters compiled between 1669 and 1678, the Amsterdam doctor Jan Sysmus described Van der Ast as a painter of flowers, shells and lizards, and placed the word ‘moy’ (beautiful) beside his name.
Gerdien Wuestman, 2007
References
Bol 1960, pp. 36-40; Segal in Amsterdam 1984a, pp. 45-62; Staps in Saur V, 1992, pp. 478-79
Entry
As in many other paintings by Van der Ast, the underdrawing in Still Life with Flowers is clearly visible with the naked eye, especially in the light-coloured flowers such as the roses and the marigold. Although the paint layers have become more transparent, it has been suggested that the artist intended the underdrawing to be visible to a certain extent, as some of the flowers would have been flat, formless shapes otherwise.2 However, Van der Ast did not always follow his original sketch as closely as he did in the present painting, making it unlikely that the visibility of the underdrawing was intentional.3
The dating of this painting has been the subject of scholarly debate. Van der Ast rarely dated his pictures after the mid-1620s, which makes his chronology difficult to establish. Bergström suggested a date around 1622-23 on the basis of compositional similarities with some of Van der Ast’s dated flower pieces from this period.4 Mitchell also dated the picture to the early 1620s.5
According to Segal, however, the compactness of the bouquet, the use of a ribbed glass vase, and the lightening of the background towards the right, are all typical features of Van der Ast’s flower still lifes of the early 1630s.6 Wallert tentatively dated the painting to Van der Ast’s Delft period, that is after 1632, noting that the brushstrokes are looser and more fluid than in the artist’s early manner.7 However, the blurred outlines seem to be caused by abrasion. Close examination of the best preserved areas, such as the caterpillar on the table, the flying insect, and the flowers in the upper left back-ground, shows that these details have been elaborated carefully and in convincing detail, which makes a dating in the 1620s more plausible. Daniëlle Lokin, who is currently writing a monograph on Van der Ast, dates the picture to the late 1620s.8
In a handwritten catalogue of the collection of the painting’s last owner, Arnoldus Andries des Tombe, it is stated that the panel came from the Van Citters family.9 This may refer to either the family of Des Tombe’s mother, Cornelia Maria Verheije van Citters (1789-1852), or the family of his wife Carolina Hester de Witte van Citters (1820-1901).
Gerdien Wuestman, 2007
See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements
This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 9.
Literature
Bol 1960, p. 70, no. 10, with earlier literature; Gemar-Koeltzsch 1995, II, p. 53, no. 8/19
Collection catalogues
1903, pp. 34-35, no. 387; 1934, p. 32, no. 387; 1960, p. 23, no. 387; 1976, p. 90, no. A 2103; 2007, no. 9
Citation
G. Wuestman, 2007, 'Balthasar van der Ast, Still Life with Flowers, c. 1625 - c. 1630', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200108148
(accessed 6 December 2025 23:29:18).