Georgius Jacobus Johannes van OS (The Hague, 1782 - Paris, 1861) Still life with shells, 1813 Watercolor on black pencil lines. Signed and dated in pen and brown ink lower left: "GJJ Van Os. f. 1813". On the reverse, inscription in pencil in the center: "N° 2". 28,9 x 43,3 cm Provenance: - Probably Roos, de Vries, Brondgeest sale, Amsterdam, March 1, 1819, box G, no. 4 (sold for 275 guilders to "Brondgeest"). - Probably Albertus Brondgeest (1786-1849), painter and art dealer. - Anonymous sale, Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, April 17, 1975, no. 599. Georgius Jacobus Johannes van Os belongs to a great family of artists. Like his brother and sister, he trained with his father, the still life and marine painter Jan van Os (1744-1808). In 1809, he won the first prize of the Felix Meritis Society for his still life watercolors, a field in which he excelled. After several stays in France in 1812 and 1814-1815, van Os finally settled in Paris where, after having participated in the Salon since 1812, he exhibited regularly until 1848 still lifes but also landscapes, in oil as well as in watercolor. His recognized talent also allowed him to work as a decorator for the Sèvres factory. Our work is a perfect example of van Os' meticulous observation of nature on the spot. Each shell can be identified: conus ammiralis, voluta ebraea, Hysteroconcha dione, Cardita crassicosta etc... The artist carefully prepared his works by making studies in the form of plates, as shown by a sheet of shells acquired in 2003 by the Metropolitan Museum in New York.