Abraham Brueghel

(Antwerp 1631–1697 Naples)
Still life of flowers with fruits, putti and animals,
bears signature lower right,
oil on canvas, 158 x 210 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Nestore Leoni, Rome (1931);
Private collection, Italy

Literature:
G. J. Hoogewerff, Abramo Breughel e Niccolino van Houbraken pittori di fiori in Italia, in: Dedalo. Rassegna d’arte diretta da Ugo Ojetti, 1930-1931. Anno XI, vol. II, pp. 486-489, p.487 ill.;
E. Greindl, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe siècle, Brussels 1956, p. 153

We are grateful to Fred Meijer for confirming the attribution on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph.

The present impressive still life fully demonstrates the great talent of Abraham Brueghel, who was the son of Jan Brueghel the Younger. Although he trained with his father in Antwerp, his cultural influences were Italian, and he spent almost his whole career in Italy. He began in Rome where he is documented from 1659, and was admitted as a member of the Accademia di San Luca, and later from 1676, he is documented in Naples where he was to fully evolve his opulent and sumptuous style, of painting playing an important role in the diffusion of the new decorative language of the Baroque. His work clearly reveals the influence of his Italian contemporaries such as Michelangelo Campidoglio and Michelangelo Cerquozzi whilst at the same time maintain the firmness of composition and clarity of detail associated with his Northern heritage.

The present composition displays Abraham Brueghel´s close observation of nature as revealed in the individual pieces of fruit and flowers, which is typical trait of Northern European painting. The artist’s brushwork is confident and full of temperament culminating in an exercise of ‘pure’ painting through the accurately rendered surface textures of such southern European fruit as lemons. Such painterly quality established Abraham Brueghel’s reputation as one of the most important still life painters of the High Baroque in Italy.