Otto Marseus van Schrieck, called Snuffelaer

Jack Linsky, New York, by 1963;

With Brian Koetser Gallery, 1969;

Thereafter acquired by the present owner, by 1975.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, A World of Flowers, 2 May - 9 June 1963;

Richmond, Virginia Museum of Art, Expert's Choice: 1000 Years of the Art Trade, 22 April - 12 June 1983.

"A World of Flowers: Paintings and Prints," in Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin 58, no. 277 (Spring 1963), p. 125, reproduced;

P. Mitchell, European flower painters, London 1973, pp. 28-29, reproduced fig. 28;

I. Bergstrom, "Marseus, peintre de fleurs, papillons et serpents," in L'Oeil 233 (1974), p. 28;

L.J. Bol, Goede Onbekenden, Utrecht 1982, p. 55, fig. 5;

L.J. Bol, "Goede Onbekenden, schilders van flora en fauna in bos en struweel," in Tableau 4, no. 3 (1982), pp. 374, 376, fig. 4;

J. Walker, Expert's Choice: 1000 years of the art trade, New York 1983, p. 67, reproduced in color;

M. Berardi, Science into art: Rachel Ruysch's early development as a still-life painter, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan 1998, pp. 193 note 360, 541, reproduced fig. 55 (as largely copied after a work by Willem van Aelst from 1658);

S. Steensma, Otto Marseus van Schrieck: Leben und Werk, Olms 1999, pp. 26, 104, cat. no. A1.7, reproduced plate 7;

S. Segal and K. Alen, Dutch and Flemish Flower Pieces, Leiden and Boston 2020, vol. I, p. 468, reproduced fig. 8.60.

Otto Marseus van Schrieck was one of the leading innovators of the Dutch still life genre, depicting plants and creatures with meticulous detail, often in nocturnal settings. Marseus is thought to have trained in Amsterdam and is known to have traveled to England, France, and Italy where he worked for Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand II de Medici. After his return to Amsterdam, he established his “Waterrijck,” or wetlands in the rural surroundings of Diemen where he cultivated plants and insects for his own study.¹ His nickname Snuffelaer, or ferreter, undoubtedly reflects his excursions into the forest underbrush to examine different specimens—sometimes even bringing them back to his vivarium, where they were further cultivated and studied. Much admired during his lifetime, his works were imitated by number of artists, including no less distinguished a talent than Rachel Ruysch.

In the present painting, he draws direct inspiration from a work by fellow Dutch painter Willem van Aelst (1627-1683), with whom he often engaged in a creative dialogue. Van Aelst’s prototype, dated 1658, depicts the same floral bouquet in a glass vase with slight variations.² The meticulously detailed arrangement features a variety of specimens including carnations, tulips, snowballs, pansies, morning glory, and carnations, along with four species of butterflies, a bumblebee, a diadem spider, a bluebottle fly, and a blue hawker dragonfly. Whereas Van Aelst features a watch on a blue ribbon resting on the marble countertop to the right of the vase, Van Schrieck replaces the object with a sand lizard, reflecting his keen interest in animalia.

¹ See A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 139.

² Sotheby’s New York, 11 January 1996, lot 31, sold for $772,500.