[Flowers and fruits on a marble plinth].[Paris or Holland], [ca. 1815-1825]. Four watercolour drawings on paper, three signed “G.J.J Van Os”, edged with a thin black border.

[4] ll.Georgius Jacobus Johannes van Os (1782-1861), not to be confused with his nephew George Jac. Joh. Van Os (1805-1841), also a painter, was as a member of a Dutch family of artists. He studied with his father, Jan van Os, a painter of flowers and maritime views. In 1812 Georgius entered the Salon de Paris for the first time. In the following period he not only worked in Paris, but also in The Hague and Amsterdam. In Sèvres, a southwestern suburb of Paris, he worked for the famous porcelain factory. After 1826 he settled definitively in Paris where he died in 1861. He is mainly known for his exquisite “natures mortes”, specializing in still lifes of flowers, fruit and game. From early on he demonstrated such exceptional talent that he was asked to paint several flowers for the plates of Jan Kops’s famous Flora Batava (1800-1822). He soon developed into one of the most celebrated still life painters of the 19th century.These four exquisite watercolours show well-considered arrangements of (1) a fig, citron, walnut, gooseberries and blackberries; (2) peonies and jasmine; (3) lilies and lilacs and (4) peonies and morning glories.Some discolouring at the edges from a former frame, otherwise in good condition.l Cf. RKD 245504; for the artist: Thieme/Becker 26, pp. 68-69.