RACHEL RUYSCH Still life with flowers and a caterpillar on a marble ledge.
RACHEL RUYSCH
(1664 Amsterdam 1750)
Still life with flowers and a caterpillar on a marble ledge.
Oil on canvas.
Signed lower right: R. Ruysch.
31.2 × 25.8 cm.
Provenance:
- With Xaver Scheidwimmer, Munich, 2006.
- Private collection, southern Germany.
Twenty-six years after the only comprehensive monograph on Rachel Ruysch to date, written by Marianne Berardi as a dissertation in 1998, the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (26 November 2024–16 March 2025), the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo (13 April–7 July 2025) and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (23 August–7 December 2025) devoted a major exhibition to the artist. The accompanying catalogue provides important new insights into Ruysch's extraordinary career and once again underlines her outstanding position within 17th-century Dutch flower painting. See Exh. cat. Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art, Boston 2024.
As the daughter of the important botanist and anatomist Frederik Ruysch (1638–1731), Rachel Ruysch grew up in Amsterdam in a prosperous environment shaped by art and science. Born in The Hague, she settled with her family in Amsterdam by 1675 at the latest, where she learned to paint under Willem van Aelst (1627–1683). In 1693 she married the painter Jurriaen Pool (1666–1745), who supported her artistic career throughout her life. Nevertheless, she continued to sign her paintings with her maiden name, as in the present case.
Between 1708 and 1716 Rachel Ruysch was in the service of Elector Johann Wilhelm of the Palatinate (1658–1716) and his wife Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici (1667–1743) in Düsseldorf. Her close relationship with the electoral couple is demonstrated, among other things, by the fact that she named her tenth son Jan Willem (baptised in 1711) after her patron, and the Elector and his wife also acted as godparents. After Johann Wilhelm's death, Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici brought a significant part of her art collection, including works by Rachel Ruysch, to the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, where they remain today.
The painting offered here is a fine example of the group of flower still lifes described by Marianne Berardi as 'nosegay' (small bouquet). She elegantly characterises them as follows: 'These flower arrangements radiate a graceful, even slightly disordered casualness, as though the person who picked the flowers to enjoy their colour and fragrance had only just set them down for a moment.' See 'The Artful Nature of Rachel Ruysch: What Distinguishes Her Painted World', in: Exh. cat. 2024, p. 58. A comparable composition with a colourful bouquet, a dragonfly, a ladybird and two butterflies is in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (oil on canvas, circa 1690, inv. no. PD.38-1975).
The painting is documented in the RKD, The Hague, as an autograph work by Rachel Ruysch.
Our thanks to Dr. Fred G. Meijer who confirms the authenticity of this artwork based on a photograph. He dates the painting in the mid-1690s.
Dr. Marianne Berardi will be willing to issue an art historical report about this painting on request.
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RACHEL RUYSCH
(1664 Amsterdam 1750)
Still life with flowers and a caterpillar on a marble ledge.
Oil on canvas.
Signed lower right: R. Ruysch.
31.2 × 25.8 cm.
Provenance:
- With Xaver Scheidwimmer, Munich, 2006.
- Private collection, southern Germany.
Twenty-six years after the only comprehensive monograph on Rachel Ruysch to date, written by Marianne Berardi as a dissertation in 1998, the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (26 November 2024–16 March 2025), the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo (13 April–7 July 2025) and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (23 August–7 December 2025) devoted a major exhibition to the artist. The accompanying catalogue provides important new insights into Ruysch's extraordinary career and once again underlines her outstanding position within 17th-century Dutch flower painting. See Exh. cat. Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art, Boston 2024.
As the daughter of the important botanist and anatomist Frederik Ruysch (1638–1731), Rachel Ruysch grew up in Amsterdam in a prosperous environment shaped by art and science. Born in The Hague, she settled with her family in Amsterdam by 1675 at the latest, where she learned to paint under Willem van Aelst (1627–1683). In 1693 she married the painter Jurriaen Pool (1666–1745), who supported her artistic career throughout her life. Nevertheless, she continued to sign her paintings with her maiden name, as in the present case.
Between 1708 and 1716 Rachel Ruysch was in the service of Elector Johann Wilhelm of the Palatinate (1658–1716) and his wife Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici (1667–1743) in Düsseldorf. Her close relationship with the electoral couple is demonstrated, among other things, by the fact that she named her tenth son Jan Willem (baptised in 1711) after her patron, and the Elector and his wife also acted as godparents. After Johann Wilhelm's death, Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici brought a significant part of her art collection, including works by Rachel Ruysch, to the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, where they remain today.
The painting offered here is a fine example of the group of flower still lifes described by Marianne Berardi as 'nosegay' (small bouquet). She elegantly characterises them as follows: 'These flower arrangements radiate a graceful, even slightly disordered casualness, as though the person who picked the flowers to enjoy their colour and fragrance had only just set them down for a moment.' See 'The Artful Nature of Rachel Ruysch: What Distinguishes Her Painted World', in: Exh. cat. 2024, p. 58. A comparable composition with a colourful bouquet, a dragonfly, a ladybird and two butterflies is in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (oil on canvas, circa 1690, inv. no. PD.38-1975).
The painting is documented in the RKD, The Hague, as an autograph work by Rachel Ruysch.
Our thanks to Dr. Fred G. Meijer who confirms the authenticity of this artwork based on a photograph. He dates the painting in the mid-1690s.
Dr. Marianne Berardi will be willing to issue an art historical report about this painting on request.
Saleroom Notice >>
Sale price
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
