Lot 39: Jan Mortel , Leiden 1652 - 1719 Peonies, Tulips, Roses and other Flowers on a ledge with two butterflies, a beetle, a snail, and a spider oil on panel

signed lower right and dated JMortel fecit / 1715 ( JM in compendium) oil on panel

measurements note 18 1/2 by 13 1/8 in.; 47 by 33.3 cm.

PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
Jan Mortel spent his entire life in his birth city of Leiden, where he was one of the leading proponents of still-life painting. He was a pupil of Jan Porcellis van Delden, whose maternal grandfather was the well-known marine painter, Jan Porcellis. Mortel is most renowned for his still life paintings of flowers, fruit, and other vegetation, a genre in which he clearly excelled, and from 1690, he was the official painter of the Univeristy of Leiden's botanical gardens. His style was much influenced by Jan Davidsz. de Heem and Abraham Mignon, whom Mortel emulated late in his career.

The present painting, signed and dated 1715, is a late work by Mortel, whose dated compositions range from 1675 to 1716. It clearly shows the influence of Mignon, as well as the painters Otto Marseus van Schrieck and Mattias Withoos, who travelled to Italy and who specialized in the flora and fauna of the sottobosco, or underbrush. These compositions, like the present painting, were usually nocturnal and depicted wildly intertwined flowers and vegetation playfully animated with insects and butterflies.