Jan Baptist Morel

[1] He studied c. 1674 under the Antwerp still life painter Nicolaes van Verendael who specialized in flower pieces and garlands.

[3] He obtained commissions from Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, the governor of the Southern Netherlands, whose palaces in Brussels he decorated.

[3] Like his master Nicolaes van Verendael, Morel was a still-life painter specialized in flower pieces and garlands.

His 'garland paintings' go back on a genre of flower representation invented in early 17th century Antwerp by Jan Brueghel the Elder.

Paintings in this genre typically show a flower or, less frequently, fruit garland around a devotional image or portrait.

These paintings were at an earlier auction by Christie's attributed to Jan Baptist Bosschaert, a contemporary still life painter with whose work Morel's compositions bear a strong similarity.