Bronckhorst Watercolor of a Flamingo

BRONCKHORST, Johannes (1648 - 1727).
A Flamingo and Exotic Poultry in a Landscape.
Watercolor and gouache, with touches of white heightening, within brown ink framing lines.
Signed l.c: J.B. fec.bears old numbering in brown ink, upper left corner, verso: f 12.N 11213
5/8" x 10 3/4" sheet; 25 1/2" x 23" framed.

Provenance: Pieter van den Brande or Johan Pieter van den Drande, Middleburg; by descent to E.C. Baron van Pallandt; his sale Amsterdam, Mak van Waay, 26 September 1972, lot 291: and Unicorno Collection. Exhibitions: Amsterdam/ Dorecht 1994 - 95, cat. no. 28. Literature: Anne M. Zaal, "Herman Henstenburgh 1667 - 1726," Dissertation (Vrije Universiteit, Amersterdam, 1991), reproduced vol. 1 fig. 22. Accounts of the work of Johannes Bronckhorst, his pupil Herman Henstenburgh and the latterÂ’s son, Anton Henstenburgh, generally mention the fact that they all worked not only as artists but also, and perhaps primarily, as pastry-bakers, and that Bronckhorst was the elder HenstenburghÂ’s teacher in both of these arts. What is often less clearly described is the way in which these artists define Dutch natural history drawing of the period around 1700, standing as a crucial stylistic link between the generally more scientifically motivated drawings of the 17th century, and the greater emphasis on decoration often seen in the works of subsequent generations. From the time of the Tulip Mania, if not before, Dutch natural history draughtsmen had, perhaps in contrast to their painter colleagues, sought above all else to record and document faithfully the rich variety of species of the natural world, and even though their drawings were often very beautiful, they served primarily as catalogues of the contents of various collections of naturalia. In the field of flowers, one of the most famous such collections was that established by Agneta Block (1629-1704) at Vijverhof, her country house on the River Vecht. Block employed many of the leading natural history artists of her time to make a drawn record of the various flowers in her garden, and both Bronckhorst and Herman Henstenburgh worked for a while on this project, as part of a large group of artists that also included, amongst others, Pieter Withoos (see lots 121, 126-7), Herman Saftleven, Otto Marseus van Schrieck, Maria Sibylla Merian and Rochus van Veen (see lots 118, 120, 122). Yet unlike their older collaborators such as Saftleven, Bronckhorst and Henstenburgh rapidly moved on from making drawings that simply recorded the appearance of a particular plant or animal, to making complete compositions which, while generally very accurate in terms of natural history, were clearly conceived first and foremost as decorative independent works of art. The Unicorno collection contains an exceptional series of finished watercolours and gouaches of this type by all three of these highly talented Hoorn baker-artists.