Ambrosius Bosschaert completed the ""Bouquet of Flowers on a Ledge"" in 1619. He infused his flower bouquets with a sense of wonder. He had an unerring compositional awareness, and delighted in combining an array of flowers of various colours and shapes to create a pleasing and uplifting visual experience.
Here, a spectacular yellow bearded iris and red-and-white striped tulips surmount a bouquet that also contains, among others, roses, snowdrops, blue bells and daffodils. At the base of the vase lie two shells to the one side and a spider to the other. A damselfly alighting on the iris and a Red Admiral butterfly on the cyclamen further enliven the composition.
This was the bouquet that wasn't as these flowers could not have all been in bloom at the same time; therefore, and because several of them recur in other paintings by Bosschaert, he must have worked from memory or from drawings he kept in his studio.
