Herman Henstenburgh

An urn, garlanded with flowers with various insects and snails on a stone ledge

Auction Closed

January 31, 05:59 PM GMT

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Herman Henstenburgh

Hoorn 1667 - 1726

An urn, garlanded with flowers with various insects and snails on a stone ledge

Watercolor and bodycolor, heightened with gum arabic, on vellum laid down on panel;

signed lower left: H: Henstenburgh.fec-

387 by 315 mm; 15 ¼ by 12 ⅜ in.

Sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 July 2014, lot 137;
Sale, London, Sotheby's, 28 January 2015, lot 152;
Sale, Frankfurt am Main, Auktionshaus Arnold, 18 November 2017, lot 480, where acquired by the present owner

Herman Henstenburgh was one of three notable still-life and natural history artists from Hoorn, who established that town as a center for their very distinctive, highly detailed and decorative watercolor and gouache style. All three also famously followed parallel careers as pastry-bakers. The eldest of the these artists was Johannes Bronckhorst (1648-1727), who was Herman Henstenburgh's teacher as both artist and baker. The trio was completed by Herman's son, Anton Henstenburgh (1695-1781).

According to the near-contemporary chronicler, Johan van Gool, Henstenburgh started out by depicting birds and landscapes, and then broadened his repertoire after about 1695 to include flowers and fruit pieces. Van Gool went on to explain the extraordinary richness of Henstenburgh's colors by claiming that the artist had invented a new type of watercolor.