Flowers in a Sculpted Vase
Jakob Bogdany (c.1660 - 1724)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1691 - 1724
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1905 x 1524 mm (75 x 60 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 108922
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Flowers in a Sculpted Vase by Jakob Bogdani (Eperjes (now Presov), Hungary c.1660 – Finchley 1724), circa 1691 - 1724, traces of a signature on plinth, bottom right J Bo[gdani] (apparently deliberately painted over in brown - the better to pass it off as a J.Baptiste Monnoyer?). A pair to KED/P/258 by Jacob Bodgani (1660-1724).This painting and its pendant (KED/P/258) have been in these locations since before 1769, but were thought to be by the more celebrated French flower-painter, 'Baptiste' (Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer), who also worked in England for a period. Their origin is uncertain, and they could (from their shape) have been painted as overdoors for the old house. This Hungarian artist specialised in still life and flower painting, though in England he is best known as a painter of exotic birds, because of the set of paintings at Kew. Of gentle birth and apparently self trained, he was in England in 1691, employed by William III by 1694, and naturalised in 1700.
Provenance
There is no firm evidence for any purchases by Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 4th Bt (1676 - 1758) at the posthumous sale of Sir James Thornhill (1675 - 1734), 24-25 February, 1734-5, as by ‘Old Baptist’ but there is apparently a copy of the catalogue at Kedleston (the implication of Leslie Harris’s letter of 2 April 1992), and it includes “A Piece of Flowers by Baptiste” which sold at £3.15.0., and ‘Its Companion by Ditto’ that sale at £8.0.0.- the large difference in price suggesting that - like the two at Kedleston - they were not true pendants; recorded in the North Music Room/Music Room: Catalogue, 1769, 1770; Young, 1771; Catalogue, c1778, c.1787; Pilkington, 1789; Catalogue, 1789-90; Lipscomb, 1802; Britton, 1802; Davies, 1811; Topographer, 1824; Catalogue, 1849, 1856, 1861; Athenæum, 1874; Scarsdale, 1977; bought by William Kent for Sir Nathaniel Curzon; at Kedleston by 1769; and thence by descent; bought with part of the contents of Kedleston Hall with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) in 1986 when the house and park were given to the National Trust by Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale (1924-2000)
Credit line
Kedleston Hall, The Scarsdale Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1987)
Makers and roles
Jakob Bogdany (c.1660 - 1724), publisher previously catalogued as attributed to Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (Lille 1636 – London 1699), publisher