Jean BERNARD

(Amsterdam 1765 - Amsterdam 1833 )

Two Pea Pods on a Stem

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Watercolour and grey wash, with framing lines in pencil.
Signed with initials J.B. at the lower right and dated 1801 in pencil at the lower left.
Inscribed (in a modern hand) Un petit cadeau! on the verso.
180 x 231 mm. (7 1/8 x 9 1/8 in.)
Among stylistically comparable watercolour drawings by Jean Bernard is a study of a passion flower, executed around 1825, in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Also in the Rijskmuseum are similar watercolour studies by Bernard of a bunch of grapes and a larger study of an artichoke, dated October 1797.







A pupil of the sculptor Christiaan Welmeer, Jean Bernard studied at the Stadstekenacademie in Amsterdam. As an amateur artist, he produced paintings of animals and some portraits, although he was particularly known as a draughtsman and watercolourist. He was also active as an art collector.



Drawings by Jean Bernard are quite rare today. A large group of drawings of animals, birds and fish, as well as studies of plants and flowers, trees, landscapes and figures, was donated to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam by the artist’s descendants in 1904. Other drawings by the artist are today in the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, the Rijksprentenkabinet in Leiden, the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo and the Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

Provenance

Iohan Quirijn van Regteren Altena, Amsterdam (his posthumous sale stamp [Lugt 4617] on the verso) Thence by descent until 2014.

Literature

Laurens J. Bol, Bekoring van het kleine, exhibition catalogue, Dordrecht, 1959-1960, p.20, no.13.



Exhibition

Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, Bekoring van het kleine, 1959-1960, no.13.



Jean BERNARD

Two Pea Pods on a Stem