ARELLANO, Juan de
(b. 1614, Santorcaz, d. 1676, Madrid)

Basket of Flowers

1671
Oil on canvas, 84 x 105,5 cm
Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao

Throughout his career, Juan de Arellano executed flower pieces of a horizontal format that represent bouquets in open weave wicker baskets. During the last decade of his career, he painted a number of these works on a large scale that constitute the apogee of his flower pieces of this type, of which this is a particularly imposing example.

In fact, Arellano's style changed little during the last twenty years of his career. However, the flowers in this painting are the product of many years of experience in this field and are modelled with considerable fluency and freshness of touch.