Willem van Aelst

baroque

Willem van Aelst Paintings 1627 - 1683 Baroque Era Painter

Vase of Flowers with Watch, 1656

Oil on canvas, 55 x 46,5 cm

Staatliche Museen, Kassel

Paintings of Flowers

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OIL PAINTING: Vase of Flowers with Watch, 1656
Willem van Aelst was a still-life specialist prized for his lovely flower and fruit pieces, and he has been mentioned as a sometime follower of Kalf. The eminent flower painter Rachel Ruysch was his pupil.
This floral still-life oil painting - Vase of Flowers with Watch , has symbolic significance. The blooms, shown in all their glory, already imply the fading and dying that is to come, a reminder of the transience of beauty. A similar idea is communicated by the holes eaten in the leaves, while the open pocket-watch serves to suggest the passage of earthly time, as well as standing more generally for the importance of good measure. Yet the hour cannot be read from the face of the watch, and this might suggest that time is not passing, that Aelst has brought time to a standstill in his painting, overcoming the very transience of things.