The Fitzwilliam Museum has gained a major new acquisition - Roelandt Savery's oil painting of a Still life with flowers in a glass berkemeyer with a lizard, frog and dragonfly on a ledge. The painting, which is on copper, is dated 1637 and is the last known painting by Savery. At this time in his career he had moved from Prague, where he had been Court Painter to Rudolf II, and was living in Utrecht.

Savery is best known as a painter of Tyrolean Mountain landscapes with soldiers; forest scenes with Orpheus calling countless creatures, and pure animal studies, but his flower paintings, of which 19 survive, have always been highly prized, not just for their decorative qualities but also for their strikingly individual character. The glass berkemeyer in which the flowers are placed probably belonged to Savery as it appears in at least two other paintings by him, one of 1613, the other dated 1620. Insects of many kinds tend to fill every empty space and no flowerpiece is without at least one lizard, grasshopper or frog by the glass. The flowers included are characteristic of Savery; they include roses, iris, a tulip, narcissus, a turk's cap lily and violets.

The Fitzwilliam owns two other paintings by Savery, a brilliant small oil on copper of 1622 showing Orpheus with beasts and birds and an oil on panel, dated 1619, of The Creation of Birds.

Commenting on the most recent acquisition, Duncan Robinson, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, said:

"This newly allocated painting is an important addition to the distinguished collection of flower paintings in the Fitzwilliam, mostly given or bequeathed by Major Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Lord Fairhaven, and we are delighted to have it on display in Gallery V of the Founder's Building".


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