A lustrous painting of a basket of flowers by an early 17th-century female artist who was written out of art history for centuries is to be sold at auction in December.
The untitled still life by the Flemish painter Clara Peeters has not been seen in public for almost 100 years and has never appeared in any books. Little is known about Peeters’ life.
The painting shows roses, carnations, tulips and other flowers in a wicker basket sitting on a ledge, with a butterfly and a cricket in the foreground. Peeters painted the still life on copper, which gives the painting an “enamel-like lustre”, said Chloe Stead, of Sotheby’s, which is selling the painting with an estimate of £500,000 to £700,000.
“Peeters was forgotten for such a long time. There is a remarkable lack of detail known about her life, which is tantalising given the extraordinary quality of her paintings,” Stead said.
Peeters’ paintings were recorded outside Antwerp, where she lived – for example, in the royal collection in Madrid – indicating that she was a successful artist. “Her paintings were quite prized objects and were being passed around. Which makes it so remarkable that she – like so many of her female contemporaries – were, over the centuries thereafter, written out of art history. And only rediscovered and reassessed in the mid-late 20th century,” Stead said.
Peeters painted 40 works in her lifetime. The still life of flowers has been in a private collection in Belgium since 1928.
It is being sold alongside another still life, this one painted by Louise Moillon in 1634, when the French artist was 24. It depicts apricots, peaches and plums in a porcelain bowl.
Stead said: “Moillon’s paintings are sublime. She’s an expert in texture, and it’s the contrast in this painting between the cool white of the porcelain bowl and the lovely fuzzy surface of the apricots and peaches that is such a treat.
“She’s got a larger oeuvre [than Peeters] but a lot of her paintings are in private collections in France. And so she’s a name that we see less often. It’s a beautiful picture.” It has an estimate of £600,000 to £800,000.
Ottilie Windsor, a senior director at Sotheby’s, said female artists were performing well in the market. Some collectors, private and institutional, are specifically seeking female artists, particularly those who have been overlooked. Exhibitions of female artists, such as Artemisia Gentileschi at the National Gallery, have been hugely successful.
“There’ll be more of that coming, and the market will follow that trajectory,” Windsor said. “It’s not just the art. These personal stories are compelling, and many of us are more engaged exploring these less looked-at lives. Interest is rising, but there’s still a long way to go.”