YKENS, Frans

This painting shows a large pronk still-life with flowers, fruit and fowl.

Pronkstilleven (Dutch for ‘ostentatious’, ‘ornate’ or ‘sumptuous’ still-life) is a style of ornate still-life painting, which was developed in the 1640s in Antwerp from where it spread quickly to the Dutch Republic. Fancy pronk still-lifes feature imported fruits and expensive objects such as Chinese porcelain, Venetian glassware, and silver-gilt cups and trays, usually rendered in glistening light and a velvety atmosphere.

Frans Ykens was a still-life painter. His favourite subjects were flowers and fruit, but on some occasions he also painted still-lifes with game and a single fish still-life.

The present still-life consists of a flowered vase, a basket of fruit and two dead birds on a wooden ledge.

The painting depicts a still-life of fruit and oysters with a butterfly on a partly draped wooden ledge.

This painting depicts a still-life of roses, lilies, tulips and other flowers in a vase with a butterfly. It combines a highly successful modelling of the blooms in depth and bulk, and an engaging softness in palette and brushwork.

Ykens was apprenticed to his uncle, Osias Beert, and became a Master in Antwerp in 1630. Few of his works are dated, but in what are presumed to be mature works such as this one, no trace of his formation under Beert remains, and his style is more reminiscent of artists active in the middle of the seventeenth century, such as Daniel Seghers.

This signed panel depicts a still-life with shrimp, ramps, flowers and a glass vase.