Circle of Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (Lille, 1636 - London, 1699)
Vase of flowers
Oil on canvas, 103/97 cm x 77
The elaborate lobed profile of this canvas hints at the preciousness of the floral composition presented to the viewer.
A raking light cuts frontally across the marble shelf, falling perpendicularly in front of the vase and enhancing the defined corollas of flowers that powerfully emerge from a theatrical dark background. The fluid formal geometry that outlines the flowers, juxtaposed in a calm coloristic syntax, does not disdain to reveal the most refined species: red peonies are alternated with roses, variously striped carnations, anemones with filamentous petals, and perhaps centifolias. It is precisely this particular variety of cut flowers, in agreement with the solid plasticity that rhythmically shapes the corollas and the antique-style decoration of the relief on the historiated vase, that allows us to associate the present artistic language with the particular culture supported by the echo of Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636 - 1699). Monnoyer, a Flemish painter from Lille, initially linked his name to cartoons for tapestries he created for the Beauvais and Gobelins manufactories. Subsequently, he became a protégé of Charles le Brun, who requested his art to decorate the castles of Marly and then Meudon. His fame took him across the Channel to Montagu House in London and under the eyes of other English patrons. Monnoyer was an eclectic and multifaceted artist: the full solidity of buds and corollas was a constant in his still lifes, just as in this one, which defines every petal and every leaf. Monnoyer's lesson spread unrestrainedly through the school and the various lineages he determined; in this regard, it is possible to compare the present work both with two still lifes by Monnoyer, one seen on the antique market (Sotheby's, auction of January 9, 1980, no. 155), the other in a private collection, and with several paintings by Jean Baptiste Belin de Fontenay (Caen, 1653 – Paris, 1715), Monnoyer's student and son-in-law, all of which have passed through private collections (Dorotheum auctions). A clear uniformity of pastel tones directs these compositions towards a soberly restrained taste, in line with the predominant ornamental intent of the era. Belin also fulfilled commissions for the royal residences of Versailles, Compiègne, and Fontainebleau, Marly, and Meudon, reinterpreting elegant bouquets of cut flowers, in which beauty was supremely enhanced by the quiet yet noble floral composition.
