Description: This is an Important and Fine Antique 19th c. Dutch Old Master Floral Tulip Still Life Oil Painting on Tin, attributed to the legendary 19th century Dutch master painter, Cornelis Springer (1817 - 1891.) This artwork depicts a magnificent floral still life scene, with an ornate and meticulously detailed painted and gilded 19th c. porcelain Delft vase. Coming forth from the vessel is a kaleidoscopic assortment of colorful flowers, including the ubiquitous Dutch tulip. The vase rests on a finely rendered white marble countertop, and the overall image exemplifies the tactfulness and talent of the painter. Signed with the monogram: "CS" with the 'c' placed inside of the larger 'S.' The only painter in the world with this monogram, and especially one who was in the Netherlands and active during the time, is none other than Cornelis Springer, a legendary Dutch architectural painter whose larger cityscape works regularly sell in the 100K+ Euros range at prestigious auctions across the world, especially at Sotheby's. (Photo 24 displays an identical confirmed monogram by Springer.) This specific monogram is present on several other confirmed authentic examples of Springer's early works. I have not had this piece authenticated, nor have I submitted it to auction yet, but when and if I do, this listing will obviously be taken down. Springer is not known for his still life paintings, and based on this subject matter, and the early variation of his monogram that is used, this is likely an early work by the artist. Approximately 15 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches (including frame.) Actual artwork is approximately 14 x 17 3/4 inches. Good condition for nearly two centuries of age and storage, with moderate scuffing, edge wear and gilding loss to the antique wood frame (please see photos.) Acquired from an affluent deceased estate collection in Los Angeles, California. PRICED TO SELL. No Lowballs Please. I welcome you to do your own research on this artwork! If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks! About Cornelis Springer (1817 - 1891): Cornelis Springer Born: 1817 - AmsterdamDied: 1891 - HilversumKnown for: Townscape paintings, buildings, figure, human activity. Cornelis Springer (1817 - 1891) was active/lived in Netherlands. Cornelis Springer is known for Townscape paintings, buildings, figure, human activity. Biography from Christie's AmsterdamCornelis Springer is considered to be one of the most important and influential architectural painters of the 19th century. Born into an Amsterdam family of building contractors and architects, it is clear why he became the townscape painter par excellence. He studied under the auspices of the well-known and celebrated architectural painter Kasparus Karsen (1810-1896). In the two years that Springer was his apprentice, he would learn how to create capriccio city views intertwined with topographically correct elements.It was the contemporary trend for painters in his circles to idealize the past and especially the Dutch national heritage. However, from the 1850s onwards, Springer moved towards a more realistic subject matter. He chose to abandon the fantasy elements within his work and concentrated on existing topographical locations.Springer most often depicted his hometown Amsterdam, but also several other Dutch towns, such as Haarlem, Enkhuizen, Zwolle, Kampen and Monnickendam. Around 1859, Springer had acclaimed such fame, that he only worked on commission for private collectors and art dealers. A patron would choose a composition on the basis of his drawings, after which Springer would paint a version in oil. A waiting list of two years in this period was testimony to the great popularity of his work. Cornelis Springer (1817–1891) was a Dutch 19th-century cityscape painter. Born in Amsterdam, he was a pupil of his father, the carpenter Willem Springer (1778–1857). He was a pupil of the painters Hendrik Gerritten Cate, Kasparus Karsen, and Jacobus van der Stok. He became a member of the Amsterdam painters collective Felix Meritis and won a gold medal for a painting of a church interior in 1847. He is known for watercolors, etchings, and drawings, especially of city views and town scenes that he sketched while traveling around the country. He was awarded the Leopold order of Belgium in 1865, and in 1878 he was invited with Jozef Israëls to advise the Dutch Ministry of Public Affairs on the plans for the Rijksmuseum. Springer died in Hilversum in 1891. BIOGRAPHY - Cornelius Springer (1817 - 1891) Cornelis Springer was the fourth son of Maria Elisabeth Doetsen and Willem Springer, a master builder and contractor. When he was born on March 25, 1817, Amsterdam was a city of about 200,000 people and The Netherlands was just beginning to enjoy an independent existence free of both the Napoleonic and Prussian empires. As in many other European nations, new industrialized enterprises were developing and would soon transform traditional Dutch agrarian life with mechanized farm equipment, railroads and steam-powered factories. The Springer family was well positioned to take an active role in designing and building this changing environment. Young Cornelis received his first lessons in drawing and architectural rendering from his older brother Hendrik, who was already a practicing architect. He mastered the principles of linear perspective and drafting under Hendrik’s tutelage.The next step in Springer’s education was enrollment at the Amsterdam Academy of Fine Arts in 1827. There he studied with Jacobus van der Stok (1795-1874) and Hendrik Gerrit ten Cate (1822-1891). Van der Stok specialized in landscape paintings, including many winter scenes featuring ice skaters and snow-laden clouds composed in a classical seventeenth-century format. In contrast, Ten Cate focused on military images with a meticulous attention to detail. In 1834—at age seventeen—one of Springer's landscape studies was accepted for the Living Masters exhibition, a rare accomplishment for such a young artist.It was the painter Kaspar Karssen (1810-1896), however, who would be Springer’s most important influence. He studied with Karssen from 1835-1837, absorbing his style of painting topographic images of towns known as capricci. The term capricci originated with the Italian landscape painters who created fantastical architectural scenes based on reality but with imaginative additions and distortions. The trend seems to have begun in Rome in the 1600s and then flourished most notably in Venice in the 1700s in the work of painters such as Antonio Canaletto and Francesco Guardi. During the second half of the eighteenth century, Giovanni Battista Piranesi published several series of etchings of Roman architecture and monuments which were widely distributed throughout Europe. [i]Topographical prints were also popular in the emerging literary genre of travel writing in the early 1800s. Works such as John Britton’s Beauties of England and Wales (1801-1815) was a multi-volume set of engravings accompanied by descriptions of every county in England and Wales. Likewise, Baron Taylor’s Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans l’ancienne France (1828) and Samuel Prout’s lithographic prints in Fac-similes of sketches made in Flanders and Germany (1833) offered readers a glimpse of famous sights and architectural masterpieces on the continent.Karssen’s capricci were essentially townscapes of Dutch cities, but they were often populated not only by the local landmarks but also by well-known buildings or sites from other cities. In fact, it became a fashionable parlor game to identify what the landmarks were and where they were actually located. For example, a painting of Dordrecht might contain an image of the local city hall, but also include a bridge from Amsterdam and a church from Utrecht. It was quite a success among bourgeois Dutch collectors. [ii] In Springer’s hands, the capricci became even more detailed and sophisticated in imagery. He would typically include figures that were associated with the town being depicted; students in Leiden, bureaucrats at The Hague or dock workers in Rotterdam. Occasionally, he even included himself in the painting as in View of the Town Hall and St. Lawrence Church in Alkmaar where he is shown perched on a tripod trying to sketch while surrounded by curious bystanders.Springer’s inclusion of elements that are not actually part of a townscape has raised questions about the documentary value of his canvases. Clearly, the artist’s intention was not necessarily topographical accuracy. His earliest work, when he was most influenced by Karssen’s painting, was deliberately manipulated to provoke an interest in identifying the landmarks and the towns where they were located. [iii] In contrast Springer’s sketchbooks are full of realistic views of both urban and rural scenes, which indicates that his design process began with sketching on site. The sketchbooks also demonstrate the artist’s mastery of architectural rendering—a skill that he learned at a young age and that would continue to serve him well throughout his career. [iv]By the early 1840s, Springer had launched an independent career and was a regular contributor to the arts community of Amsterdam. He joined the intellectual society known as Felix Meritis, founded in 1776 and dedicated to the study of music, art and architecture, natural sciences, commerce, and literature; in short, it was a civic organization devoted to the Enlightenment pursuit of empirical knowledge based on reason. Springer won a silver medal in 1843 and a gold medal for his painting of a church interior at the society’s exhibition in 1847.The popularity of his capricci and the public recognition of his work by the arts community meant that Springer was successful quite early in his career. By the 1850s, he was famous and worked only on commission. In fact, his art was in such demand that there was a two-year waiting list for his work. Collectors interested in commissioning a painting would look through Springer’s sketchbooks and select a composition based on the images there; the artist would then develop the oil painting. [v]Undoubtedly, this success was especially welcome in January 1855 when Springer’s son Leonard was born. He had married Geertruij ten Cate, the daughter of Hendrik ten Cate who had been one of Springer’s first instructors at the Amsterdam Academy of Art, on May 7, 1846. Leonard Springer would grow up to be a well-respected landscape architect.At some point during the 1850s, Springer also became a member of the arts club, Arti et Amicitiae. It was founded in De Karseboom, a local coffeehouse, in 1839 for the purpose of promoting the visual arts, improving the social and economic position of artists, and facilitating social gatherings. Not surprisingly Arti et Amicitiae also sponsored an annual exhibition for the benefit of widows and orphans. Springer began contributing to the exhibitions in the mid-1850s. [vi]Springer’s position was evident when he was asked to contribute to the Rembrandt celebration in 1852. Together with his former teacher Karssen, he created a capriccio of The Hague painted in a seventeenth century style. J. Schaeps described it in his article on Springer’s role as a topographic artist: “On the occasion of the Rembrandt celebrations in Amsterdam in 1852 several artists were invited to take part in the decoration of a festival hall. The sparkling view historiée of The Hague by Springer and his former teacher Karssen is, as far as we know, the only surviving art of the decoration.” [vii]Although he traveled extensively in The Netherlands throughout his career, and very occasionally ventured into northern France, Springer began moving farther afield in 1860 when he spent some months in Brussels. Perhaps he was intrigued with the activities of the Realist artists there; he had been developing more and more images of contemporary life in his own work and the capricci of his early career gradually became historical genre paintings with the figures dressed in seventeenth century clothing. More significant was Springer’s increasing interest in depicting decidedly industrial cities with tram lines and construction sites and hansom cabs. Belgian artists studying at the Atelier Libre Saint-Luc in 1846 formed the core of a Realist movement in Brussels, which expanded throughout the 1850s. When Courbet’s Stone-Breakers was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1851, it was warmly received by this group, although not necessarily by the general press. In 1867, Springer returned to Brussels where the arts community was even more lively and experimental than it had been in earlier years. At the end of his time in Brussels, Springer continued his travels into Germany, stopping in Hanover, Bremen and voyaging along the Rhine River between Germany and France.In 1878, Springer, together with Jozef Israels, was invited to act as an advisor to the Dutch Ministry of Public Affairs on the plans for the Rijksmuseum building. The concept of a National Gallery for The Netherlands was first proposed in 1798 when the government decided to establish a museum. The first museum to reflect this commitment was the Nationale Kunst-Galerij, opened in May 1800 in The Hague. In 1808, it was moved to Amsterdam under the direction of Napoleon’s brother Louis Bonaparte; it opened a year later in the Royal Palace. In 1817—free of French domination—the collection was moved to the Trippenhuis. Over the next four decades, parts of collection were transferred to other cities, with historical objects moving to The Hague in 1820 and nineteenth century paintings by living artist to the Villa Welgelegen in Haarlem in 1838. By the mid-1860s it was clear that this patchwork of locations was not suited to the creation of a coherent and national museum; nor did it do justice to the rich tradition of visual arts of Holland.An initial design competition in 1863 did not produce anything that the government wished to construct, and so the project languished for yet another decade until 1876 when another competition was held. Pierre Cuypers, who had already submitted a design in 1863, was successful this time. Construction began in October. The presence of Springer and Israels as advisors is telling. Israels was certainly one of the most respected and innovative Dutch artists of the time, and Springer was not only a painter of architecture, but also particularly knowledgeable about the processes of both design and construction because of his family’s business. The project was large, complex and challenging; it was also time-consuming which may explain why Springer’s production of paintings declined over the next decade. The new Rijksmuseum (which means “national museum”) opened on July 13, 1885. [viii]Springer continued to travel in The Netherlands painting in all seasons. Some reflect everyday scenes like The Milkman, Hilversum, which may have been a daily sight from his own front window. Others are lyrical landscapes, A Heron by a Forest Creek, for example, or cityscapes of a snowy street in Haarlem. The historical costumes have largely disappeared as have the fantastical architectural elements. The late paintings are both more realistic and more grounded in everyday life.Cornelis Springer died on February 20, 1891, in Hilversum, The Netherlands.Janet Whitmore, Ph.D.Selected MuseumsCheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, Gloucestershire, UKDordrechts Museum, The NetherlandsFine Arts Museums of San FranciscoKlönisches Stadtmuseum, Cologne, GermanyKunsthalle, Bremen, GermanyMuseum of Fine Arts, BostonNiedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover, Germany Philadelphia Museum of ArtRijksmuseum, AmsterdamTeylers Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands
Price: 19500 USD
Location: Orange, California
End Time: 2024-08-15T01:45:42.000Z
Shipping Cost: 150 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Artist: Cornelis Springer
Signed By: Cornelis Springer
Size: Medium
Signed: Yes
Period: Early 19th Century (1800-1830)
Material: Oil, Tin
Region of Origin: California, USA
Framing: Framed
Subject: Flowers, Gardens, Landscape, Plants, States & Counties, Still Life, Tree, Porcelain, Tulips, Holland
Type: Painting
Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
Item Height: 19 3/4 in
Theme: Agriculture, Architecture, Art, Cities & Towns, Continents & Countries, Cultures & Ethnicities, Exhibitions, Famous Places, Floral, History, Nature
Style: Dutch, Impressionism, Old Master, Realism, Still Life
Features: One of a Kind (OOAK)
Production Technique: Oil Painting
Country/Region of Manufacture: Netherlands
Handmade: Yes
Item Width: 15 3/4 in
Time Period Produced: 1800-1849
