Still Life With A Bouquet Of Summer Flowers, 19th Century By Matthijs Maris (1839-1917)

Still Life with a Bouquet of Summer Flowers, 19th CenturyBy Matthijs Maris (1839-1917), record sale at $160,000Large still life with a bouquet of summer flowers, oil on canvas by Matthijs Maris, 19th century. Excellent quality and condition, signed and presented in its original gilt frame.Dimensions: approximately 50.8 x 38.1 cm (framed)Artist BiographyMatthijs Maris was the brother of Jacob and Willem Maris. He received a pension from the Dutch Crown. He moved to Antwerp around 1855 to join his brother. There he studied under Nicaise de Keyser and Louis Meijer. In 1860, he spent time in Germany and Switzerland and was particularly interested in the work of Kaulbach and Rethel. He then moved to Paris, where he studied under Hébert at the École des Beaux-Arts and joined the ranks of the Avant-Garde. His stay in the French capital coincided with the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and he served in the National Guard. It is said that Maris began painting in 1852, at the age of 13. Even as a young man, he was fiercely independent, and his brother Jacob appears to have exerted no influence on his style. Unlike his brother Jacob, Matthijs Maris was less concerned with painting from nature with simplicity and expressiveness than with giving free rein to his rich imagination. It has been suggested that he was influenced by the Romantic movement, but if so, then it was Shakespearean Romanticism. It is difficult to find a single painter who has succeeded so successfully in depicting Shakespeare on canvas. Paintings such as The Prince and the Princess and The King's Children may not have been directly inspired by Shakespeare's plays, but they were undoubtedly inspired by them. A similar poeticism can be found in Maris's landscapes and engravings. Maris is known to have exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1872 with "Dutch Village" and in 1873 with "Baptism." The latter painting is said to have been presented from London, where Maris had accepted a position offered a year earlier by the decorator Daniel Cattier. Group exhibitions2003, Lasting Attraction: Dutch Artists in Italy, 1806-1940 (De Blijvende Verlokking: Nederlandse Kunstenaars in Itali», 1806-1940), Kunsthal, Rotterdam (an exhibition highlighting the impact on Dutch artists of the trip to Italy)Solo exhibitions2008, The Maris Brothers and the Hague School, Gemeentemuseum, The HagueBibliographyHeteren, Marjan van, et al.: The Poetry of Reality: Nineteenth-Century Dutch Painters, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2000.De blijvende verlokking: Nederlandse kunstenaars in Itali», 1806-1940, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthal, Rotterdam, 2003.