Still Life with Chinese Bowl and Vase of Flowers, Isaak Soreau
Soreau, the son of an Antwerp painter in Frankfurt, specialized in "table-top still lifes," featuring fruits, flowers, and insects depicted in ways that appeal to the senses. For example, the sheen on the grapes and color of the mulberries suggest their flavor, while the delicacy of the Chinese porcelain bowl, paired with the glass beaker with tulips, lilies of the valley, and other flowers, appeals to sight and touch. Porcelains made during the reign of the Chinese emperor Wan Li (1572-1619)-the same type bowl as on the bracket above-were appreciated as marvels of Chinese ingenuity. However, the bulbs that produced the tulips at the right were more valuable. Introduced from Turkey a few decades earlier, tulips, especially striped ones, could, in these years, cost as much a farm.
Date between 1635 and 1638 (Baroque)
oil on panel
48.8 × 64.9 cm (19.2 × 25.6 in)
Walters Art Museum
Accession number 37.1902
Place of creation Frankfurt, Germany
Object history
Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome
1902: purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore
1931: bequeathed to Walters Art Museum by Henry Walters
Exhibition history World of Wonder. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1971-1972.
Credit line Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902
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