Rachel Ruysch

• The Netherlands in the 17^th century was the home of many gifted realist artists, but one of them intrigued me with the chosen subject of her paintings – flowers. Rachel Ruysch (born in Amsterdam, 3^rd June 1664 – died in Amsterdam, 12^th August 1750) was a Dutch baroque painter specialised in still-life paintings of flowers, the love for which she received from her father, Frederik Ruysch, a Professor of anatomy and botany.

Rachel Ruysch, Still-Life with Bouquet of Flowers and Plums

• She displayed artistic talent at an early age, and at 15 she was sent to study with Willem van Aelst, a famous Delft flower painter, from whom she learnt his asymmetric spiralling compositional style which she refined and made her own, and by 18 had produced a number of still-lives of plants and animals in woodland settings.

• It is believed her realist portrayal of animals and insects is due to her fathers collection of plant and animal specimens, which she studied in depth when painting. A deep knowledge of botany and zoology is evident in all her meticulous works, perhaps more so than any other painter of the Flemish movement. She also began to teach her sister to paint, but it seems that she lacked Rachel's natural talent, and only a copy of Abraham Mignons 'Woodland Scene with a Squirrel' is recorded as being her sister's work.

• As well as her commitment to her art, Rachel Ruysch was also committed to her family: in 1693 she married Juriaen Pool, a portrait painter, with whom she had 10 children, which didn't prevent Ruysch from painting extensively.

• She was introduced into the painters' guild in The Hague, and several years later, a summons to the court of Elector Palatine in Düsseldorf, Johann Wilhelm was received, and she and her husband spent the period from 1708-1716 as his court painters, returning to Holland when prince died.

• Ruysch kept painting until her death, leaving us with a considerable number of beautiful paintings which have never been subject to the changing fashions of the art world; demand for Ruysch's work was, and still is, high.

• When looking at her work, it is easy to see why she has remained popular. In Still Life of Flowers from 1689 her delicate brushwork captures the different textures of flower petals; her subtle and natural use of light creates depth and a feeling that the blooms can be picked from the canvas; and her almost photographic rendering of a Dragonfly and Butterfly resting on the flowers makes you feel that if you move too suddenly, they will take flight away from you. What also makes her paintings so attractive, and so remarkable for the age, are their informal composition, as well as the baroque lighting, with almost suffocating dark background and brightly lit foreground. When looked at alongside the works of Clara Peeters and other flower painters of the 17^th century, Rachel's paintings did not restrict themselves with small, symmetrical arrangements of flowers; she painted them as they grew, as they would look in the world of her audience, as living things with their own character.
  

Rachel Ruysch, Still Life of Flowers, (1689)

• It is this appreciation and understanding of the flow of the natural world that makes Rachel Ruysch a truly great artist, and it was her balancing of her duties as a wife and mother with the demands of her profession that made her a truly great female artist.