Jan Frans van Dael

His work stands in the Flemish and Dutch tradition of flower painting with a sober composition and attention to detail to which he added a French-inspired decorative monumentality.

Evidence of his success are the many commissions he secured from the Empresses Josephine (who owned five of his works) and Marie-Louise Bonaparte as well as Restoration kings Louis XVIII and Charles X.

[2] He collected the works of flower artists, both by his contemporaries and the great 17th-century Dutch still life painters Jan Davidsz.

[3] His pupils were Jean Benner-Fries, Elise Bruyère, Laurent Coste, Vicomtesse Iphigénie Decaux-Milet-Moreau, Henriëtte Geertruida Knip, Elisa-Emilie Le Mire, Auguste Piquet de Brienne, Christiaan van Pol, Adèle Riché, and Jean Ulrich Tournier.

[3] Van Dael's work stands in the Flemish and Dutch tradition of flower painting exemplified by Roelandt Savery with its sober composition and attention to detail.

[2] Van Dael applied a smooth gesso layer to his canvases, which allowed him to recreate the jewel-like quality of 17th century panels.

[1] Van Dael also made a few pure landscapes and occasionally painted portraits, often of fellow artists.