Jan van Os

Jan van Os Flowers and fruit on a stone pedestal Oil on wood. 81 x 65 cm. Signed lower left: J.Van Os fecit. Provenance Richard Green, London, in the 1980s. - Private collection, Netherlands. - Dutch private collection, in the estate. Jan van Os, born in Middelharnis in 1744, was apprenticed to the painter Aert Schouman in neighboring The Hague. He initially devoted himself to landscape and marine painting, but switched to flower and fruit arrangements in the mid-1760s. He built on the Dutch tradition of Jan van Huysum, for example, but his works radiate the freshness and shadowless optimism of his own time as well as the sensuality of the playful 18th century. Van Os paints flowers and fruit with the greatest precision and virtuosity. He organizes his compositions asymmetrically and pyramidally, revealing the invisible zig-zag line that is also characteristic of the art of his time. The vibrant colors of van Os' paintings are astonishing. They are dominated by a green base tone, which accounts for the positive aura of his painting. The present large painting, with its lush floral and fruity splendor, exemplifies these qualities that have made van Os' works so impressive since their creation and continue to do so today.