National Gallery painting goes on display in Barnsley Market as part of 'Jan van Huysum Visits' (15–20 June 2021)

Issued June 2021

 Dutch masterpiece from the National Gallery, Jan van Huysum’s Flowers in a Terracotta Vase (1736–7), will go on display in Barnsley Market from today (15 June) as part of Jan van Huysum Visits. It will be on view until 20 June 2021.

The painting will visit Barnsley, the East Midlands, Scotland and Northern Ireland having previously visited Cornwall and Norfolk. Each display explores one of six ‘Ways to Wellbeing’: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning, Give, and Care (for the Planet).

The 'Jan van Huysum Visits' tour began in early June and will continue for approximately three months.

In each region, the painting is popping up in an unusual or unexpected non-museum venue; in Barnsley it will appear in the town’s iconic markets, loved from far and wide. Other locations include a food bank and community library, a former department store and community centres. The tour promotes ways in which art and culture can support wellbeing and reach audiences who have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19 and the UK lockdown.

At the heart of 'Jan van Huysum Visits' is engagement with local communities. In each setting the Gallery is working closely with the venue as well as a local museum or gallery to ensure that as many people as possible can engage with the painting, and make it come alive in new and different ways.

The painting has other links to Barnsley – Cannon Hall Museum, the jewel in the town’s cultural crown, has an artwork by the same artist in its outstanding collection. The stunning work entitled 'Flower Piece' has been recently restored and will be on display at the town’s Cooper Gallery at the same time, here visitors can discover more about this fascinating artist and his work.  A beautiful trail, a collaboration between Barnsley Museums and the National Gallery, has been marked out between the market and the gallery by large crocheted flowers to link the two artworks. The trail, which is made up of seven designated stops, each chosen for its significance in the town’s history or the flowers and plants that appear in the area, invites visitors to ‘be active’ by guiding them through Barnsley.

Barnsley Museums invited members of Action for Asperger’s and Autism Barnsley to find out more about the painting in a series of sessions with curators from Barnsley and the National Gallery. The group were fascinated by the details in the painting and wrote a poem together in response which has been used in the interpretation alongside the painting during its visit to Barnsley.

Jan van Huysum (1682–1749) was a native of Amsterdam and the last of the distinguished still-life painters active in the Northern Netherlands in the 17th and early 18th centuries, an internationally celebrated artist in his lifetime. His spectacular 'Flowers in a Terracotta Vase' – which shows over 30 species of flowers and plants in bloom, unfurling in exquisite detail – is no shy, hide-in-a-corner painting. It’s meant to dazzle and it does. Van Huysum is after, and achieves, excess: a celebration of nature, an entertaining puzzle and a display of wealth, culture and fashion.

The vase towers above the viewer who is placed firmly below, looking up at it in a niche suitable for a Classical sculpture. The vase overflows with all types of flowers, from florid roses, peonies, mauve and red poppies to the humbler primroses, apple blossom and bachelor’s buttons. In the Dutch Republic, horticulture was a subject of national pride. This is a rich man’s bouquet made to look winsome and natural, but in reality, it’s carefully orchestrated, displaying not only a passion for flowers but an immense knowledge and understanding of them. Butterflies, a yellow ant, a fly, and hothouse fruit are added to the exotic mix, bringing the garden into the house as was the fashion in interior decoration. But one or two of the luscious grapes are past their best, perhaps suggesting the brevity of life but more likely indicating that a painted picture lives on long after the insects and flowers have vanished. Crystal drops of cool water, feathery leaves, delicate petals breathing their scent, the quivering wings of the red admiral butterfly all evoke the senses of touch, of smell, even of taste.

'Flowers in a Terracotta Vase' celebrates the longevity of the painted image and enduring impact art can have on our hearts and minds. The Gallery invites audiences from across the nation to engage with this splendid picture during the longer, brighter days of summer. The vibrancy and abundance of 'Flowers in a Terracotta Vase' will resonate with so many who have sought comfort and hope in the natural world during a trying year. Whether it be tending to their own gardens, enjoying the beauty and wildlife of national parks and woodlands, or simply pausing to notice the dewy petals of fresh blooms, visitors will find echoes of that in the vivid colours of 'Flowers in a Terracotta Vase'.

'Jan van Huysum Visits' is one of the Gallery’s national partnerships which aim to share paintings across the UK, creating a range of ways for the widest possible audience to explore and be inspired by the collection.

National Gallery Director, Dr Gabriele Finaldi, says, ‘This astounding, large, flower painting will make an unexpected appearance in unexpected venues across the country. I hope it will make people think about art and the beauty of nature, encourage their own creativity and inspire them to visit their own local museum or art collection.’

Cllr Tim Cheetham, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place (Regeneration and Culture) says, ‘It is such an honour that Barnsley is part of this amazing project and to have artwork of this calibre in the town for people to see and discover is a real privilege. Our markets are loved far and wide and I am sure it will be a welcomed surprise to have such an amazing edition. The fact that the artwork links so closely to the towns outstanding collections is wonderful and we hope people will visit the Cooper Gallery to see more work by the artist.’

This project is supported by Art Explora - Académie des Beaux-Arts Award

Insurance has been gifted by Blackwall Green

Supported by The John S Cohen Foundation

Insurance has been gifted by Blackwall Green

Notes to editors

Image caption

Jan van Huysum
'Flowers in a Terracotta Vase'
1736–7
Oil on canvas
133.5 x 91.5 cm
© The National Gallery, London

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Art Explora

Aware that culture has the power to initiate dialogue, bring people together and make us stronger, French entrepreneur and patron Frédéric Jousset created Art Explora in November 2019, a philanthropic foundation with an international, roving and digital ambition. Renewing the promise of making culture more accessible, Art Explora aims to bridge the cultural divide, notably by broadcasting digital content and engaging in innovative projects available to all and thereby creating new meetings between works and a broad and diverse audience, all the while supporting creation, cultural actors and their initiatives.  https://artexplora.org/en/

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