Jan van Huysum, (1682-1749)
Still Life of Roses, Tulips, Peonies andother Flowers in a Sculpted Vase and a Bird’s Nest on a Ledge
About 1718
Oil on copper.
Scottish National Gallery
Image via Sotheby’s
Still life by Jan van Huysum acquired for Scotland A Dutch flower painting by Jan van Huysum (1682-1749) has been acquired for the nation by the National Galleries of Scotland through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme. The tax settlement value of the painting is £2.45 million.]]>
June 15, 2013, source: National Galleries of Scotland
The painting is the first work by this artist to enter the National collection. Indeed, no painting from this period of van Huysum’s career is in any Scottish public collection.
Commenting on the acquisition, Director of the Scottish National Gallery, Michael Clarke said, ‘Van Huysum was an absolute master of the art of flower painting in 18th-century Holland. Expensive flowers had been imported into Holland from the seventeenth century onwards and there was a great demand from the affluent merchant classes for paintings which depicted these exotic blooms. The hyper-realism and technical sophistication of many of these flower paintings is incredible. This is a really major example, and we are delighted to have been allocated it through the government’s Acceptance in Lieu scheme.‘
Jan van Huysum is regarded as the most important painter of flower still lifes of his time and received prestigious commissions from royalty and aristocracy throughout Europe. This painting belongs to a small group of works from Van Huysum’s transitional period when he began to introduce more light into his dark compositions, eventually leading to his bright flower paintings with landscape backgrounds. This particular painting is his largest and most ambitious on copper, a support he used only occasionally.
The Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) scheme allows a deceased person’s estate to gift significant items to the nation and satisfy more tax than by selling items on the open market. This also allows the nation to acquire important works of art at favourable prices. AIL is a reserved matter but “executive devolution” arrangements are in place to enable Scottish Ministers to deal with cases in which there is a Scottish Interest. AIL is administered across the UK by the Arts Council England and combined the Schemes are capped, so can offset a total of £30m per annum.
Related content
Constable’s ‘Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows’ saved for the UK (news, May 2013)
Follow us on:
