2007 Catalogue - Colnaghi

Provenance: Commissioned by Elector-Palatine,
Johann Wilhelm, Düsseldorf; Mannheim, Kunsthalle,
1780, no. 295; Munich, Hogarten Galerie, 1805, no.
924; with Galerie Schleissheim, Munich, 1810; Alte
pinakothek, Munich, 1836 ; deaccessioned policy from
the Alte Pinakothek in 1937; with John Mitchell,
London, 1937; Private collection, England, 1937;
George L. Lazarus, by 1956.
Literature: C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue of Dutch
Painters, Teaneck and Cambridge, 1928, vol. X, no.
16; M. H. Grant, Rachel Ruysch, Leigh-on-Sea, 1956,
p. 30, no. 58; P. Mitchell, European Flower Painters,
London, p. 203, pl. 205; Francesco Solinas, ed. Fiori:
Cinque secoli di pittura floreale, exhibition catalogue,
Rome, 2004, p. 299, illustrated; To be included in the
forthcoming catalogue raisonné by Marianne Berardi.
Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, Dutch Painters,
winter 1952/53, no. 553; John Mitchell & Son,
Inspiration of Nature, 1976; Dulwich Picture Gallery,
London, Dutch Flower Painting 1600-1750, 1996,
no. 27; Biella, Italy, Fiori: Cinque secoli di pittura
floreale, 2004.
Ruysch’s composition of curves and smooth shapes is
one of elegance, sophistication and femininity.
Abundance, exemplified by these elegant lines and
rounded forms, had become the purpose of flower stilllife
by the turn of the eighteenth century. The vanitas
theme that was so popular in early examples of the
genre had receded and, with the works of Ruysch and
her contemporary Jan van Huysum an interest in the
decorative overtook the earlier emphasis on moralizing
iconography. Ruysch increasingly favoured diagonals
and often oriented her compositions around them, as
she has in this painting of 1709 and Flowers in a Vase
from the same period (National Gallery, London). The
tulip at the top of the bouquet that inclines towards
the right is balanced by the weight of the peony at the
lower left, while the broken stem of the carnation
extends the line of the tulip to form an elegant S shape,
in almost perfect accordance with Hogarth's later 'line
of beauty'.
08
Rachel Ruysch
(The Hague 1664 – 1750 Amsterdam)
Roses, Tulips and other Flowers in a Glass Vase on a Stone Ledge
Signed and dated lower right: Rachel Ruysch 1709
Oil on canvas
30 3 /4 x 25 1 /4 in. (78 x 64 cm.)
34
Rachel Ruysch was a favourite among contemporary
poets. Hieronymus Sweerts dedicated a poem to her
in which he declared that:
‘Zeuxis' illustrious progeny
will crown your youthful person
as their Flower Goddess
for your beautifully variegated festoons, bouquets,
and wreaths, painted with a brilliance
that few can match.
If Mistress Oosterwyk
sat here in bridal splendor,
you would outshine her.
De Heem would rise from his grave,
with van der Ast and van Aelst, upon whose works
the world has showered its praise.’
(Alle de gedichten, Amsterdam, 1697)
No less than eleven contemporary poets paid tribute
to her after her death in an anthology published in
1750 devoted to “de uitmuntende schilderesse
mejuffrouwe Rachel Ruysch” (the excellent painter
Miss Rachel Ruysch). More recent admirers have
described her as “the small snowy dome which crowns
the Everest of this particular art” and advised the
potential buyer that “with Rachel Ruysch there are no
poor pieces, and a man might with perfect safety send
in his bid for a "lot" which he had never seen”. 1
Rachel Ruysch was born into an artistic family in
The Hague in 1664. Her father was the renowned
anatomist and botanist, Frederick Ruysch (1638 -
1731), and her mother was the daughter of the
architect Pieter Post. She became a pupil of Willem
van Aelst in 1679, at the age of fifteen, and remained
in his studio until the painter's death in 1683. In 1693
she married the portrait painter Juriaen Pool, with
whom she had ten children. In 1709 the family moved
to The Hague where both entered the city's St. Luke's
Guild. From 1708 to 1713 both Ruysch and Pool
served in Düsseldorf as court painters to the Elector
Palatine, Johann Wilhelm. Ruysch’s Fruit and Flowers
in a Forest (Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Chemnitz,
Germany) was commissioned by the Elector and hung
in his bedroom, together with Vase of Flowers (now in
(Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich).