Margaretha Roosenboom Dutch, 1843-1896

Margaretha Roosenboom was a daughter of the painter Nicolaas Johannes Roosenboom (1805-1880) and a granddaughter of Andreas Schelfhout. She received her artistic education mostly from her father. She preferred painting flower still lifes, especially roses, both in oil paint and in aquarelle. She was married to the landscapist J. G. Vogel and sometimes signed with Mart Vogel-Roosenboom.

Miss Marius compared Margaretha Roosenboom in her Hollandsche Schilderkunst in de 19^de eeuw to Gerardine van de Sande Bakhuyzen as follows: “Technically, the latter (van de Sande Bakhuyzen) was the better painter, however, the first had a better artistic sense in the way that she picked her very own colour arrangement, frequently romantic, yet touching in its presentation. Someone once called her a beautiful violin with just one string…”

Her work was awarded gold at one of the Tentoonstellingen van Levende Meesters and she was also awarded a medal at the world exhibition in Vienna in 1873.

We come across quite a few reasonable female artists in 19^th-century painting, like Adriana Haanen, Maria Vos, Gerardine van de Sande Bakhuyzen and Margaretha Roosenboom. These painters mostly focussed on still lifes of fruit and flowers as was conventional in those days. Sientje Mesdag-van Houten and Mrs Bilders-van Bosse even ventured to landscape painting now and then. Although their work was often much appreciated, they remained overshadowed by their husbands or their well-organised fellow artists. Johan Gram wrote about Margaretha Roosenboom in 1880: “The basic colour of her work is serious and refined. Her roses are not as colourful; the background is quieter and more subdued. Sometimes the olive green tone makes you fear for excess, yet generally speaking, the fine and delicate view of Miss Roosenboom’s creations have an unusual attraction on me”.