Oil on canvas

127 x 86 cm.50 x 33 7/8 in.

Signed in English on lower right

PROVENANCE William A. Smith Gallery，Plainfield，New Hampshire，U.S.

Private Collection，U.S.

HUBERT•VOS 1855-1935

Hubert Vos was a famous American Dutch portrait artist who painted portraits for Dutch Queen，King of Korea，Ambassadors of Russia to the United Kingdom，and many nobility and authorities. Vos was renowned as royal court painter. He visited China in 1899 and 1905 to paint portrait for Qingqin King，Li Hung Chang and Yuan Shikai，and he even painted for Empress Dowager Cixi on the second visit. Hubert Vos’s broad experiences expanded his artistic horizon and disciplined his artistic language，so that people could observe the representative characteristics with “racial blood” from the portraits he painted for different races，for which his work received worldwide acclaim.

Apart from executing commission of portraits for lucrative remuneration，Vos started painting interior sceneries and still-life objects later. His studio in New York was very spacious and filled with rare and valuable treasures from the remote Orient. The majority of the collection was Chinese vases and tables in oriental style. In the eyes of Vos，the sophisticated and exquisite “lifeless objects” were charmingly poetic and served as the best objects for still-life paintings. Vos then applied sophisticated sketch techniques to present the delicacy of oriental luxury. In 1972 the French Government purchased one of his still-life painting and hung it in Luxembourg Palace，giving official recognition to Vos’s still-life paintings，indicating American painter receiving the highest reward in France.

The classic traditional composition and the vivid materiality of objects demonstrated in “Still Life 1” and “Still Life 2” remind one of French artist Jan Brueghel de Oude in the 17th century，whose still-life paintings seem to freeze time. Hubert Vos inherited the tradition of Dutch painters’ excellent skills in expressing different materiality. All delicate flowers，gilded bronze，patterned table cloth，or oriental porcelain demonstrated their own exquisiteness under his brushes，highlighting the harmonious combination of colors and brushes and Vos’s unparalleled painting skills.

Price estimate:
HKD：200,000 - 300,000
USD：25,800 - 38,700

Auction Result:
HKD : 483,800