Naturalistic still life painting by Dutch artist Leonardus Nardus. The work features three jugs or vases set against a patterned carpet. Currently hung in a carved gold frame. Retains the original gallery tag on the reverse. Dimensions Without Frame: H 27 in. x W 24 in. Artist Biography: Leonardus Nardus, born in Utrecht into the Dutch upper middle class, the son of an antiquarian, was a colorful character. After training at the Amsterdam Academy, he embarked on a brief and unsuccessful gold-hunting expedition to Argentina in 1889. He then settled in America, where he became an art dealer, eventually returning to Paris a few years later. As well as being an art collector, Nardus developed his own talents as a painter. Caught up by a taste for nomadism, Léo Nardus eventually settled in Tunisia, where he built a small palace in the seaside resort of La Marsa. He frequented the intellectual elite of Tunis and became part of the upper middle class, for whom he painted portraits similar to those in our sale. He also became a patron of the arts and took part in Tunisian artistic life. His painting is both classical and sensitive, combining realism and expressive touch.