Musée No:792.038
Regular price £25.00Flowers In A Vase
Artist: Simon Verelst
Date:1669
Simon Pietersz Verelst (1644–1710) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He was born in The Hague and his father was the portrait painter Peter Verelst. When he settled in London in 1669 he already had a reputation as a painter of still lifes. This reputation grew while in Britain, where his admirers included the diarist Samuel Pepys who visited his London studio on April 11th 1669. Pepys was directed to ''a Dutchman newly come over, one Everelst, who took us to his lodging close by and did show us a little flower pot of his doing, the finest thing that I ever think I saw in my life – the drops of dew hanging on the leaves, so as I was forced again and again to put my finger to it to see whether my eyes were deceived or no. He doth ask 70l for it; I had the vanity to bid him 20l – but a better picture I never saw in my whole life, and it is worth going twenty miles to see.'' (Pepys Diary IX).
He became incredibly popular through his skill and also through the patronage of the Dukes of York and Buckingham. He was encouraged to paint portraits which usually featured aspects of his flower painting but was always better known for his flower pieces. In the final years of his life began to suffer from increasing bouts of insanity, possibly the reason why he started to huge flowers. He is known to have been hospitalised several time.