Jan Frans van Son
Flemish / Belgium, b.1658, d.1701
Flowers in a vase
- c. 1685
- Oil on canvas
- Purchased with assistance from the National Art Collections Fund of Great Britain, 1973
- 695 x 645 x 55mm
- 73/164
Tags: flowers (plants), memento mori, still lifes
The Flemish artist Jan Frans van Son came from an artistic family; his father, Joris van Son, was also a respected painter. During the sixteenth century the demand for artists to paint flower subjects – particularly rare and exotic blooms – mirrored the increased enthusiasm for the cultivation of flowers in Holland. By the seventeenth century, still-life flower painting had become a major genre in Dutch painting, and it was at this that van Son excelled. He relocated to England as a young man around 1675 where he established himself as a highly successful painter renowned for his flower paintings.
(New Dawn Fades, November 2018)
Exhibition History
Treasury: a generous legacy, 18 December 2015 - 4 December 2016
The Antwerp-born painter Jan Frans van Son was the son of the leading Flemish still life painter Joris van Son. He built a reputation with his own still life paintings in London, finding profitable patronage in England through his marriage to a niece of Robert Streater, sergeant-painter to Charles II.
The purchase of this work in London in 1973 was instigated by the Ngāpuhi art historian Jonathan Mane-Wheoki during his studies at the Courtauld Institute. It was funded by the National Art Collections Fund, a British art charity that supported purchases for galleries in this country for a reasonable period – for Christchurch as late as 1994.
This is a typical 17th century Dutch Still Life painting showing, with precise realism, the forms and surfaces of a number of precious blooms. Van Son would have used a magnifying glass to observe the fine detail of the elaborate structure and patterning of the petals. He usually painted in the studio from sketches and studies he had made earlier. This accounts for the fact that flowers which bloom at different times of the year have been brought together in the composition. Jan van Son was born in Antwerp, the son of the Flemish artist Joris van Son (1622 - c.1667) who excelled in painting flowers and fruit. Jan van Son studied under his father but early in life went to live in England with his English-born wife. While in London Van Son developed a reputation for his still life paintings of fruit and flowers, similar to those of his father but modified for English tastes.
(Label date unknown)
Floral studies were a major category in 17th century Dutch still life painting and coincided with the cultivation of flowers as a major industry in the Low Countries. Paintings of rare and perfect blooms were very popular and the artist was expected to present them with precise and careful realism. Within this balanced triangular composition each bloom is given almost equal emphasis. The fact that some of these flower at different times of the year was of no special consequence. The artist did not usually work directly from the blooms, but from earlier sketches and studies.
(Label date unknown)
Related reading: Treasury: a generous legacy
Jan van Son room card
This room card was created for the exhibition Closer 16 December 2017 – 26 August 2018.
Notes
Study (Woman in a wide black hat) by Raymond McIntyre
This article first appeared as 'The Muse' in The Press on 25 August 2015.
Notes
Still life with flowers in a basket by Pieter Hardimé
This article first appeared as 'Allegory of life's beauty, brevity and fragility' in The Press on 15 August 2014.
Notes
Untitled by Meindert Hobbema
This article first appeared as 'Dutch treat' in The Press on 12 April 2013.
Notes
Angels and Aristocrats
Blair Jackson and I attended the opening of Angels & Aristocrats at Dunedin Public Art Gallery on Friday 27 April. It's spectacular.
Notes
Taking Stock
It's hard to believe, but only eighteen collection works were damaged as a result of all earthquakes, with fourteen damaged on the 22 February 2011.
Notes
Belgian Refugees by Frances Hodgkins
This article first appeared in The Press on 28 February 2007
Belgian Refugees is one of the first oil paintings that Frances Hodgkins ever exhibited, although at the time she was already well accustomed to showing her watercolours. Working in oils and tempera on canvas, she used an experimental technique in this work that gained much from her experience with watercolour. Believed to have been first shown as Unshatterable, in October 1916 at the International Society's Autumn Exhibition in London, the choice of title would suggest a greater sense of resilience than is actually conveyed by this family group. Here only the baby is oblivious to trouble, while his nursing mother seems devoid of expression, and the older children tense with anxiety or fear. Behind the group, a gap in the swirling grey suggests the fact of a missing father, and this steam and smoke speaks of displacement, the atmospheric backdrop of a train station or the symbolic clouds of war. Within the wall of monochrome, intense colour is reserved for mother and child, who also remind of one of Hodgkins' favourite early choices of subject matter in watercolour.
Article
Trove
Recounting the untold stories behind some of the works in the exhibition Treasury: A Generous Legacy, curator Ken Hall also underlines the value of art philanthropy.
Commentary
The wisdom of crowds
In recent years, crowdfunding and crowdsourcing have become big news in the arts. By providing a funding model that enables would-be-investors to become involved in the production of new works, they have altered traditional models of patronage. Musicians, designers, dancers and visual artists are inviting the public to finance their projects via the internet. The public are also being asked to provide wealth in the form of cultural capital through crowdsourcing projects. The Gallery has been involved in two online crowdfunding ventures – a project with a public art focus around our 10th birthday celebrations, and the purchase of a major sculpture for the city. But, although these projects have been made possible by the internet, the concept behind the funding model is certainly not new. The rise of online crowdfunding platforms also raises important questions about the role of the state in the funding and generation of artwork, and the democratisation of tastemaking. How are models of supply and demand affected? Does the freedom from more traditional funding models allow greater innovation? Do 'serious' artists even ask for money? It's a big topic, and one that is undoubtedly shaping up in PhD theses around the world already. Bulletin asked a few commentators for their thoughts on the matter.
Article
The East India Company man: Brigadier-General Alexander Walker
Getting to know people can take time. While preparing for a future exhibition of early portraits from the collection, I'm becoming acquainted with Alexander Walker, and finding him a rewarding subject. Painted in 1819 by the leading Scottish portraitist of his day, Sir Henry Raeburn, Walker's portrait is wrought with Raeburn's characteristic blend of painterly vigour and attentive care and conveys the impression of a well-captured likeness.