RACHEL RUYSCH | Still life of a thistle between carnations and cornflowers on a mossy forest floor, with butterflies and a cricket

With R. Peltzer, Cologne;

His posthumous sale, Amsterdam, Frederik Muller & Cie., 26 May 1914, lot 167, for 440 Florins to

Mrs Johanna Maria Tydeman-Verloren van Themaat, Ginneken, Breda;

By family descent to P.H.A. Tydeman, Tiel, Amersfoort;

By whom anonymously sold, Amsterdam, Christie’s, 14 November 1991, lot 122;

With Rafael Valls, London, 1992, from whom acquired by the husband of the present owner.

C. Hofstede de Groot, A catalogue raisonné..., vol. X, London 1928, p. 319, cat. no. 54;

W. Stechow, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon des bildenden Künstler, vol. XXIX, Leipzig 1935, p. 244;

Stedelijk van Abbe Museum, Noord-Brabantsch kunstbezit: tentoonstelling t.g.v. het 40-jarig regeerings-jubileum van Hare Majesteit Wilhelmina, Koningin der Nederlanden, exh. cat., Eindhoven 1938, p. 26, cat. no. 44 (erroneously catalogued as a bouquet of flowers in a vase);

J.E.A.M. van de Mortel-Houben et al., Oude kunst in Brabants bezit, exh. cat., Tilburg 1948, p. 20, cat. no. 57;

Colonel M.H. Grant, Rachel Ruysch 1664–1750, Leigh-on-Sea 1956, p. 36, cat. no. 120;

M. Berardi, Science into art: Rachel Ruysch's early development as a still-life painter, doctoral diss., University of Pittsburgh 1998, pp. 284, 293–94, 298, 303–04, 318 (n. 558), 344 (n. 592), 352, 385 and 393, reproduced p. 457, fig. no. 38.

Painted when Ruysch was only nineteen years old, this exceptional still life of a mossy forest floor was likely inspired by the work of her father, Frederik Ruysch, who was an eminent professor of anatomy and botany. The bright opium poppy that commands the viewer’s attention towards the centre of the canvas is surrounded by an abundance of plants and insects, including carnations, cornflowers, a grasshopper, a dragon-fly, and numerous types of butterfly.

Ruysch's earliest dated work predates the present canvas by only two years. Her focus on woodland elements, as opposed to floral bouquets, is typical of her early works dated to the 1680s. This painting demonstrates her already prodigious talent and flare for composition and colouring, as well as the extraordinary accuracy and naturalism of her technique and execution. The influence of her master Willem van Aelst (to whom she was apprenticed at the age of sixteen) is visible in the fine finish of the painted surface, in addition to the inclusion of the turned-away poppy: a signature feature of Van Aelst’s work.¹ The variety of plants and the dramatic setting against the darkness of the woodland speaks to the influence of the leading innovator of the Dutch forest floor still life, Otto Marseus van Schrieck. Ruysch pays particular tribute to Van Schrieck through her decision to sign this painting on top of the mossy bank, just as he had done so often.² A larger canvas of the same subject is in the Glasgow Art Gallery.³ This work, which is likely to date to the same period, is similar in composition and shares certain motifs, such as the upturned carnation and the reverse of the poppy head.

Ruysch’s career spanned over sixty years and she achieved international acclaim within her own lifetime. She is today considered to be one of the greatest exponents of still life from the Golden Age of either sex, and one of the most gifted female painters in art history.

¹ See Berardi 1998, p. 304.

² See Berardi 1998, p. 298.

³ 93.7 x 71.7 cm.; inv. no. 45; see Grant 1956, p. 27, cat. no. 22.