Gérard van Spaendonck (1746-1822) - Bouquet of flowers and fruit

Gérard van Spaendonck (Tilbourg, 1746 - Paris, 1822)
Bouquet of flowers and fruit.
1779.
Watercolor and gouache on paper.
Signed and dated lower right: Van Spaendonck / 1779
H: 15.5; W: 13 cm

Provenance: Anonymous sale (Me Bussillet), January 28, 1936, no. 76.

Gérard van Spaendonck was one of the first artists to introduce Dutch floral painting to France. Born in the Netherlands, he studied at the Antwerp Academy of Painting before exhibiting for the first time at the Salon of 1777 and being admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1781. He was then appointed professor of floral painting at the Jardin des Plantes, following in the footsteps of Madeleine Basseporte. In 1786, he became painter to Marie-Antoinette's cabinet.

After the French Revolution, his career continued, and he was awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1804, before being ennobled by Napoleon I.

Closely associated with the government, he contributed some fifty watercolors for the Vélins du Roi and supplied drawings for the royal manufactory at Sèvres.

As Louis XVI's miniaturist, he adapted his favorite subject to miniature, as in this gouache watercolor, a technique the artist emphasized throughout his career.

List of flowers in the bouquet: hollyhocks, irises, hyacinths, roses, tulips, moss roses, bear's ears, double anemone, forget-me-nots, bindweeds, double poppies, narcissus, jasmine, carrot flowers, cornflowers, campanulas, podalyria.