Parrot Tulip.

An exquisite watercolour of a Tulip from the golden age of tulipmania. The watercolour depicts one of the rarer and, therefore, more valuable varieties of Tulip, with their variegated and highly striped petals, which were highly sought after.

Anthony Claesz II, was a Dutch painter active mainly in Amsterdam, although in 1632 he was documented in England. A pupil of Balthasar van der Ast, he was also influenced by Hans Bollongier. His main subjects were still-life, flower and fruit pieces. He was the teacher of Anthony Claesz III and Gillis Peeters.

These drawings are almost identical to a group of 56 sheets in the same technique which were with Robert Noortman in 1987 (S. Segal, Tulips by Anthony Claesz. 56 seventeenth-century watercolour drawings by Anthony Claesz. (ca. 1607/08-1649), Maastricht 1987). Segal attributed the group to Claesz on the basis of a serious comparison with a drawing on vellum, signed 'A.C. fc.', which is part of an album of flower drawings, mostly by Pieter Holsteyn II, from 1640-1641 in the Lindley Library, Royal Horticultural Society, London.

These florilegia were commissioned to illustrate the differences between varieties of tulip bulb which at the time demanded such high prices. The beauty of these works ensured that their images would be copied for decades to come by amateur painters and gardeners alike. Claesz was a Dutch master in his own right, with several highly accomplished works to his name. However, as with most of the great Dutch masters of this period, they happily supplemented their income by illustrating such books. It also allowed them to study in detail subjects that would later be incorporated in their great flower pieces.

Watercolour on paper, (28 x 12 cm). Framed and glazed, overall size: 43 cm x 27 cm x 1 cm.