Object Description
Cornelia Maria Haakman (Amsterdam 1787-Arnhem 1834)
Tulips, Carnations, Blue Bells in a Vase with a Still-Life of Butterfly and Snail
Signed and dated in pen and black ink ‘C.M. Haakman/ 1806’ lower right corner, pencil and watercolour
338 x 278 mm. (13¼ x 11 in.)
This charming watercolour is in the tradition of the 17th century still lifes, which was carried through into the 18th and 19th centuries by Van Huysum and Maria Margrita van Os (1780-1862). Biographical details of Haakman are brief but it is known that she married in 1807 the poet Willem Hendrik Warnsinck (1782-1857) and they had a son, Isaac Warnsinck and daughter Jacoba Hermina Warnsinck. After her marriage she changed her name to Cornelia Maria Warnsinck-Haakman.
This watercolour has been signed in the margin, and is very comparable to another watercolour that was on the market over 20 years ago of ‘Grapes, Peaches, Walnuts, Chestnuts’, and dated 1803.1
1. Anonymous sale, Christie’s London, 9 April 1990, lot 109.