Balthasar van der Ast (Middelburg 1593/94-1657 Delft)

This drawing was once part of an album of at least 483 sheets, of which 71 sheets are in an album at the Fondation Custodia, Paris (inv. 6534). Until Michiel Plomp attributed these to this group to van der Ast in 2001, they were given to Bartholomeus Assteyn (1607-after 1667) (M. Plomp, in Vermeer and the Delft School, exhib. cat., New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001, p. 445). According to Plomp the attribution to Assteyn should be dismissed on the basis of the exceptional quality of the drawings and the fact that several of them can be connected to paintings by van der Ast, and none of them to paintings by Assteyn. Like most drawings from the group, this sheet bears the inscription 'BA' and the name of the depicted flower ('Fractsinella').