Certificate Ingvar Bergström, Göteborg, 24.5.1989, as an "important, characteristic work by Georg Flegel" (in copy). This finely and carefully executed still life shows several glass vessels lined up on a wooden panel, only vaguely standing out from the darkness. Visible at first glance are a bulbous lidded glass with white wine, a stemmed glass and a rummer with red wine, next to it a metal vessel decorated with grotesque ornaments with a chain and a lid placed next to it, filled with a splendid, colourful bouquet of flowers. Other delicately painted glasses stand out against the dark background. Georg Flegel, who is considered the most important representative of early modern still life in Germany, draws with this composition on his much admired cabinet painting with flowers, fruit and goblets in the National Gallery in Prague (cf. A.-D. Ketelsen-Volkhardt, 2003, cat. no. 65, colour plate 4). This painting, conceived as a tromp-l'œil, shows an open cupboard filled with partly valuable Kunstkammer objects displayed in two compartments. The present painting is considered an independent replica that repeats the upper part of the still life. In this version of the painting, Flegel has dispensed with the framing of wooden mouldings from the Prague cabinet painting. The grouping of the objects thus appears looser and closer, the painting is smoother and cooler. Other repetitions of the whole composition or a part of it are known. They testify to the great popularity of the subject with the patrons. Dimensions 43 x 53.5 cm Artist or Maker Georg Flegel Medium Oil on canvas (relined) Exhibited Georg Flegel 1566-1638. Stilleben, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main, 18.12.1993-13.2.1994, no. 22, p. 108, ill. p. 107. – The Lure of Still Life, Galerie Lingenauber, Düsseldorf 1995, S. 44, no. 1 (with ill.). Literature Rafael Valls, Fine Art, Kat. Recent Acquisition, London 1990, no. 11. - Anne-Dore Ketelsen-Volkhardt: Georg Flegel 1566-1638, München u. Berlin 2003, no. 67, p. 276-8, ill. p. 277. Provenance French private collection. – Rafael Valls Gallery London 1993/94. – North German private collection. Notes VAT: Margin scheme