Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
Vase of Flowers
Rachel Ruysch · Baroque & Dutch Golden Age
- Artist
- Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750)
- Date
- 1700
- Dimensions
- 79.5 x 60.2 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands
This lavish still life shows a bouquet of roses, poppies, tulips, morning glories and many other flowers arranged in a vase on a marble ledge, glowing against a dark background. It is by Rachel Ruysch, one of the most successful painters of the Dutch Golden Age.
A closer look
The bouquet is built in an elegant S-shaped curve, with flowers that open, droop and twist in all directions. Ruysch painted every petal and leaf with scientific precision, along with insects and small creatures: a butterfly, caterpillars, a snail. Such bouquets could never have existed in reality, since the flowers bloom in different seasons; the artist assembled them from separate studies. Daughter of a famous anatomist and botanist, Ruysch combined natural observation with a lively, almost dancing composition.