Achievements: Given the Dutch horticultural industry’s recent boom and flourishing bulb trade, floral still lifes were especially fashionable, and Ruysch’s prices were high enough that she only had to paint a few pictures per year. By the time she married fellow painter Juriaen Pool, at the age of 29, she was already established in her own right and retained her maiden name. By 1699, she was the first woman to become a member of The Hague painters’ society Pictura, and by 1708, she and Pool became court painters of the powerful Duke Johann Wilhelm II in Düsseldorf. Highest Sold Work: A still life by Ruysch sold for $2.4 million, setting a new record for the artist at auction in 2012. | About the Artist: At 15, she was apprenticed to the well-known Dutch flower painter. In 1701, Ruysch became a member of the painters’ guild in The Hague. Several years later, Ruysch was invited to Düsseldorf to serve as court painter to Johann Wilhelm, the Elector Palatine of Bavaria. After returning to Holland, Ruysch kept painting fruit and flower pictures for a prominent clientele. She remained artistically active, proudly inscribing her age on a canvas she completed in 1747, at age 83. About the Artwork: She produced various kinds of still lifes, mainly flower pieces and woodland scenes. Her process was methodical, her brushwork delicate and exceptionally precise. Her minute attention to detail captured even the individual grains of pollen inside each open flower. Sometimes she used real moss to apply paint and butterfly wings to stamp her surfaces with texture. While Rusych’s depictions of individual plants and animals radiated scientific precision and studied realism, she combined them in fanciful luxury. |
Sources:
https://nmwa.org/art/artists/rachel-ruysch/
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-rachel-ruyschs-exquisite-lifes-revolutionized-form
https://nmwa.org/art/artists/rachel-ruysch/
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-rachel-ruyschs-exquisite-lifes-revolutionized-form