Lot 58: Willem van Aelst (Delft 1626-1683 Amsterdam)

Roses, irises, poppies and other flowers in a glass vase, on a marble ledge with a tortoiseshell butterfly and insects
signed and dated 'G. van. Aelst. 1663.' (upper left)
oil on canvas
19 5/8 x 14 3/4 in. (49.8 x 37.5 cm.)

London, Leonard Koetser, Old Master Paintings, 1962.

John W. Wilson Esq.
L. Gauchez; Christie's, London, 13 July 1889, lot 37 (£126 to Agnew's).
T.S. Kennedy; (+) Christie's, London, 18 May 1895, lot 100.
with Leonard Koetser, London, from where purchased by the grandparents of the present owner.

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

Willem van Aelst was born in Delft, where he trained as a still life painter with his uncle, Evert van Aelst. He completed his apprenticeship by 1643, at which time he enrolled in Delft's Guild of St Luke. In 1645 he was documented in France, and in 1649 he was working in Florence as court painter to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando II de' Medici. At the Medici court Willem befriended a fellow Dutch still-life painter, Otto Marseus van Schrieck, whose smooth, detailed style influenced the young artist. In 1656 van Aelst returned to the Dutch Republic and settled in Amsterdam, where he established a successful career as a painter of ornate, brightly colored still lifes of unparalleled surface detail. Among his most accomplished pupils in that city was Rachel Ruysch.