Roses, Convolvulus, Poppies and Other Flowers in an Urn on a Stone Ledge

About this work

Artist

Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750)

Year

c. 1688

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

42.5 × 33 cm

Collection

National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC

Movement

Dutch Golden Age

Roses, convolvulus, poppies and a tangle of other blooms rise in a loose pyramid from an urn set on a stone ledge, lit from the front so that the central flowers glow against a dark ground with a hint of architecture behind. Rachel Ruysch painted every grain of pollen inside the open flowers and let insects settle on petals and curling leaves that are just beginning to brown. It is an early work, from the 1680s, when she was in her twenties and already selling to collectors; she went on to a career of nearly seventy years. Some see vanitas symbols in the fading leaves and the insects, but the museum reads them as plain observation of living things rather than a sermon on decay. It came to the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington in 1986 as a gift from Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay, the museum's founders.

This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.