Oil painting, 'Flowers in a Glass Vase', Jacob van Walscapelle, 1667

A glass vase, containing a reflection of the window and light entering from the left, sitting on the edge of a marble topped table and containing a bouquet of various flowers and a stalk of wheat with several insects among the blooms

Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

Possibly acquired by Alexander Constanine Ionides, father of Constantine Alexander Ionides. Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides, 1900
The collection formed by Constantine Alexander Ionides encompasses works of a wide variety of schools, periods and artists, including Old Masters, 17th century works, and paintings by contemporary British and French 19th century artists. Constantine formed friendships with artists of the day, especially French artist Alphonse Legros, who, having spent 17 years in Britain, became a naturalise British citizen. Constantine proved a stable and generous buyer of Legros' work, while Legros, in turn, became an advisor in matters of art to the attentive Ionides. Under the influence of Legros, he developed a keen interest in French 19th century paintings, purchasing works by Delacroix, Degas, Millet and Rousseau.

Constantine’s plans concerning his collection conformed to a more ‘public-welfare’ vein of thought than those of his father or brother. He decided to donate his collection to the Victoria & Albert Museum, instead of privately distributing it or disposing of it in a sales room.

His will states:

'All my pictures both in oil and water colors and crayon or colored chalks (but subject as to my family portraits to the interest herein before given to my said Wife) and all my etchings drawings and engravings to the South Kensington Museum for the benefit of the nation to be kept there as one separate collection to be called "The Constantine Alexander Ionides Collection" and not distributed over the Museum or lent for exhibition. And I desire that the said Etchings Drawings and Engravings shall be framed and glazed by and at the expense of the authorities of the Museum so that Students there can easily see them.'
The collection bequeathed to the museum in 1901 comprises 1138 pictures, drawing and prints, to which a further 20 items were added on the death of his widow in 1920. The works are listed in the V&A catalogue of the Constantine Alexander Ionides collection.

The term ‘still life’ conventionally refers to works depicting an arrangement of diverse inanimate objects including fruits, flowers, shellfish, vessels and artefacts. The term derives from the Dutch 'stilleven', which became current from about 1650 as a collective name for this type of subject matter. Still-life reached the height of its popularity in Western Europe, especially in the Netherlands, during the 17th century although still-life subjects already existed in pre-Classical, times. As a genre, this style originates in the early 15th century in Flanders with Hugo van der Goes (ca.1440-1482), Hans Memling (ca.1435-1494) and Gerard David (ca.1460-1523) who included refined still-life details charged with symbolic meaning in their compositions in the same manner as illuminators from Ghent or Bruges did in their works for decorative purpose. In the Low Countries, the first types of still life to emerge were flower paintings and banquet tables by artists like Floris van Schooten (c.1585-after 1655). Soon, different traditions of still life with food items developed in Flanders and in the Netherlands where they became especially popular commodities in the new bourgeois art market. Dutch painters played a major role the development of this genre, inventing distinctive variations on the theme over the course of the century while Flemish artist Frans Snyders' established a taste for banquet pieces. These works were developed further in Antwerp by the Dutchman Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1684) who created opulent baroque confections of fruit, flowers, and precious vessels that became a standardized decorative type throughout Europe. Scholarly opinion had long been divided over how all of these images should be understood. The exotic fruits and valuable objects often depicted testify to the prosperous increase in wealth in cities such as Amsterdam and Haarlem but may also function as memento mori, or vanitas, that is, reminders of human mortality and invitations to meditate upon the passage of time.

Jacob van Walscapelle (1644-1727) was born in Dordrecht as Jacobus Cruydenier. Early on, he adopted his maternal great-grandfather’s surname van Walscapelle. He was probably trained in Dordrecht. Around the mid-1660s, he is known to have been a pupil of the still-life painter Cornelis Kick (1631/34-1681) in Amsterdam and his early flower paintings can barely be discerned from his teacher’s. Jacob van Walscapelle’s main still-life subjects were flowers and fruit. Until ca.1670, flower paintings in the style of Cornelis Kick dominate his oeuvre, but subsequently he seems to have been inspired to some degree by still lifes that were being produced in Utrecht by Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1682/84) and Abraham Mignon (1640-1679). His meticulously rendered, strongly lit and sharply defined fruit and flowers are strongly reminiscent of the works that de Heem and Mignon painted during the second half of the 1660s. This display of flowers, like most of van Walscapelle’s still lifes, does not appear to carry any specific symbolism, although some suggest that the stalk of wheat (the basic material for bread) and the grapes (which produce wine) allude to the Eucharist. The butterflies may be metaphors for the resurrected soul of the devout Christian, while the fast-fading flowers may represent a vanitas (memento mori) aspect. This painting is the earliest dated example of the artist work

A still-life containing similar flowers held by the Rijksmuseum and refurred to by C.M. Kauffmann in the Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, vol I. Before 1800 (London, 1973) was formerly ascribed to Rachel Ruysch but has since been re-attributed to Walscapelle (inv. no. SK-A-356, previously iv. no. 2086).

There is a still-life of a similar composition, ascribed to Jacob van Walscappelle currently in a Dutch private collection. It has been suggested that this is a pendent to CAI.87, however it appers more likely to be a later elaboration of the subject. See comments for full details of this painting.

A glass vase, containing a reflection of the window and light entering from the left, sitting on the edge of a marble topped table and containing a bouquet of various flowers and a stalk of wheat with several insects among the blooms. Jacob van Walscapelle (1644-1727) was probably trained in Dordrecht but is known to have been a pupil of the still-life painter Cornelis Kick (1631/34-1681) in Amsterdam by the mid-1660s. Jacob van Walscapelle’s main still-life subjects were flowers and fruit. His meticulously rendered, strongly lit and sharply defined fruit and flowers are strongly reminiscent of the works that de Heem and Mignon painted during the second half of the 1660s. This display of flowers, like most of van Walscapelle’s still lifes, does not appear to carry any specific symbolism, although some suggest that the stalk of wheat (the basic material for bread) and the grapes (which produce wine) allude to the Eucharist. The butterflies may be metaphors for the resurrected soul of the devout Christian, while the fast-fading flowers may represent a vanitas (memento mori) aspect. This painting is the earliest dated example by the artist.

CAI.87