Nicolaes van Veerendael

1640 – 1691

Flemish painter. He was taught by his father, Willem van Veerendael, and was a member of the Antwerp Guild of St Luke by 1657. Apart from some allegorical scenes with monkeys in the style of Jan Breughel the Elder and David Teniers the Younger, van Veerendael painted flower-pieces. Initially these were small, bright, graceful bouquets in tall, narrow vases, or cartouches and garlands surrounding a religious scene, sometimes by another artist, such as the Cartouche with the Virgin Surrounded by a Floral Wreath (Berlin, Staatliche Museen), in which the central grisaille is by Erasmus Quellinus. In his early work van Veerendael was influenced by Daniel Seghers, but he worked with more glaze and stronger and more contrasting colours. The bouquets from the 1670s are more informal, and insects and vanitas elements are sometimes included, indicating his debt to the work of Jan Davidsz. de Heem, with whom he collaborated on a flower still-life (Munich, Alte Pinakothek). After 1680 van Veerendael painted much more freely and briskly and used fewer glazes (e.g. Flowers and Fruit, Evansville, IN, Museum of Art and Science). Despite his susceptibility to outside influences, he did achieve a recognizable style and can be seen as a forerunner of 18th-century Flemish flower painting.

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