Roses, Clematis, a Tulip and other flowers in a Glass Vase on a wooden Ledge with a Butterfly

PROVENANCE:
Lensgreve S. Schulin, Frederiksdal, Denmark

NOTE:
This painting is among his earlier works in the genre, dating from the 1650s. With its dark background and restrained bouquet in a simple glass vase, it is influenced by the flower still lifes of the Flemish Jesuit priest Daniel Seghers (1590-1661), whose work was highly valued and given by the Jesuit Order to a number of European princes. The flowers here chosen by Arellano - generally small, fresh, and not overblown - are also characteristic of Seghers, as is the understanding of delicate forms such as the hyacinths emerging from the dark background at top centre and the light on the stems seen through water. There is a vigour and sensuality, however, in Arellano's handling of paint which presages the more florid, baroque compositions of his later years.

Arellano was a master at evoking the textures of flowers and their twisting petals, seen here for example in the complex shapes of the narcissi and daffodils at the top of the painting. He also carefully balances the colours - pink, white, yellow and blue - to give a sense of the three-dimensionality of the bouquet. Despite the apparent naturalism of the arrangement, Arellano has included flowers which bloom at different times of the year, from the narcissi and tulips of spring to the hollyhocks of late summer. Like most seventeenth century flower painters, he must have composed his works from detailed drawings or oil sketches of individual flowers, or by taking elements from his own completed paintings (or even the works of other artists) rather than painting the vase in front of the motif.

The form of Arellano's signature in this still life, Juan deare llano, occurs also in a painting of Flowers in a terracotta vase of circa 1665 in a private collection. This work is also rather restrained in composition, depicting a rustic vase with a single branch of pink hollyhocks, similar to the ones in the present bouquet.