Jan Baptist van Fornenburgh

Bio

The career of J.B. van Fornenburgh remains something of a mystery. Although his birth has now been placed circa 1585 and a firm date has been determined by which he was already dead we may only speculate as to his primary influences. His pictures have been compared with those of the Utrecht and Middleburg artists, Balthasar van der Ast, his brother in law Ambrosius Bosschaert and the latter’s sons, Ambrosius, Johannes and Abraham. According to Mitchell, Fornenburgh was active from 1608 (for a photograph of a floral still life, signed and dated BF 1608, measuring 61 x 47 cm, see the Witt Library), which would make him slightly younger than Van der Ast or the senior Bosschaert. Another notable characteristic of his work, particularly obvious in our picture, was to set the flowers and stone base in a broader and deeper space.

We may also postulate some knowledge of the floral compositions of Roelandt Savery, but as this painter was based in Utrecht and there are no records of Fornenburgh’s membership or association with the Utrecht guild, we cannot be sure of this. Nonetheless, Sam Segal recognizes this connection in a painting he compares with a composition of Savery in the Central Museum in Utrecht (dated 1624). His overall color scheme was generally more sober than Bosschaert or Van der Ast but like Savery and the Bosschaerts he has a love for the inclusion of small lizards and insects, but these are placed as incidental accents, leading the eye in different directions and do not crowd the bouquets as in the work of Savery. The most direct influence on Fornenburgh was probably Jacques II de Gheyn, who was registered with the Hague guild from 1598 until his death in 1629 (the year Fornenburgh joined the same guild) and who, to his contemporaries, was the greatest flower painter of the age. Even de Gheyn, however, prefers a bolder palette and his compositions are placed further forward towards the viewer. Bergstrom disputes van Gelder’s suggestion (supported by this author) that De Gheyn was a primary influence, preferring the Bosschaert group as Fornenburgh’s principal inspirational source.

Fornenburgh joined the Hague guild in 1629 when he had already been working for two decades but only twenty-two finished floral still lifes have been firmly attributed to him. The artist also painted still lifes of fruit or objects, some including a dead bird, both in oils and in watercolors on parchment. We may assume that in an active career of perhaps thirty years others remain either to be discovered or re-attributed.