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While the careers of many Dutch artists can be followed through a large number of drawings as well as paintings, that is not the case with Balthasar van der Ast. Of his drawings we know one large series of works perhaps made over a period of several years, a sheet of still-life in the British Museum, London, and scarcely anything else. The series of drawings served Van der Ast as a source of motifs for a number of his paintings.
This drawing belongs to a series of at least 483 sheets representing flowers, shells, and insects. The monogram BA that appears on almost every drawing of this series differs from Van der Ast's usual signature. The monogram may have been introduced by a later owner.
Inscribed in calligraphy: Admirael Brabanson; lower right BA.
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