Rachel Ruysch, the groundbreaking Dutch artist who became the first woman admitted to The Hague's prestigious artistic society, revolutionized botanical art through her extraordinary talent and deep scientific knowledge of the natural world. Her masterful still-life paintings, which often sold for higher prices than Rembrandt's works during her lifetime, are finally receiving renewed recognition through her first major monographic exhibition in over 70 years.
In 1700, at the height of her career, Ruysch created what many consider her most ambitious work: "A Still Life with Devil's Trumpet Flowers, Peonies, Hibiscus, Passionflowers and Other Plants." This remarkable painting featured 22 identifiable species from around the globe, including both botanical and entomological specimens. The composition showcased a praying mantis descending onto a cape lily while a grasshopper fed on passion fruit beneath a giant owl moth. Among the array of meticulously observed flora sat a pineapple, representing the pinnacle of contemporary horticultural achievement, having only recently been successfully cultivated in the Netherlands for the first time.
Born into a world where understanding of nature was rapidly expanding, Ruysch combined phenomenal artistic skill with extensive botanical knowledge. Her frequent focus on exotic species, rarely depicted by her contemporaries, set her apart and appealed to clients passionate about both art and horticulture. This interest was largely driven by the influx of new species arriving in the Dutch Republic from colonial territories during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Throughout her seven-decade career, Ruysch became arguably the most famous painter in the Netherlands. She achieved the historic distinction of being the first woman admitted to The Hague's artistic society, the Confrerie Pictura, and served as court painter to Johann Wilhelm II, the Elector Palatine. Her works frequently commanded higher prices during her lifetime than those of Rembrandt, establishing her as one of the most commercially successful artists of her era.
Unlike many female artists of her time who were forgotten by history, Ruysch maintained her reputation, though she was relegated to minor status primarily due to her gender and subject matter. The tide began turning in 2021 when she was selected as one of three female painters to join the Rijksmuseum's previously all-male Gallery of Honor, which celebrates the greatest artists of the Dutch Golden Age. Currently, she is the subject of her first monographic exhibition, showing at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston after successful runs at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and the Toledo Museum of Art.
Ruysch's exceptional talent was nurtured by her upbringing as the daughter of Frederick Ruysch, a prominent botanist. Growing up in a learned, prosperous, and well-connected environment surrounded by botanical specimens and scientific texts, Rachel was exposed to cutting-edge knowledge firsthand. Her father's support proved crucial, as he took the unusual step of apprenticing her to Willem van Aelst, the leading botanical painter of the day. Under van Aelst's guidance, she developed mastery in differentiating textures and honed her compositional abilities, though according to biographer Jan van Gool, she soon surpassed her teacher.
From approximately 1690 to 1700, during her late twenties and thirties, Ruysch focused primarily on nosegays and medium-sized floral bouquets. Her nosegays were charmingly casual affairs that belied the incredible skill required for their execution. However, it was in her floral bouquets that her talent truly flourished. Her encyclopedic knowledge of flowers revealed itself in her precise portrayal of their appearance and behavior, capturing the delicate textures of petals and stamens and the natural progression of blossoming, fading, and wilting in masterful compositions that left competitors far behind.
What truly distinguished Ruysch from her peers was her inclusion of exotic species from around the world. Of approximately 12 floral vases she painted during this period, four focused exclusively on species imported from the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Her knowledge and access to these rare specimens likely came through her father's position. In 1685, Frederick Ruysch was appointed professor of native plants at Amsterdam's Hortus Medicus botanical garden, and he naturally would have brought his daughter to observe these remarkable collections.
The Hortus Medicus represented one of many gardens, both public and private, that emerged alongside the expansion of colonial trade in the second half of the 17th century. These gardens offered unprecedented access to new plant species and boasted some of Europe's richest collections of native and exotic plants, along with the largest hothouses in the Dutch Republic dedicated to cultivating species from colonial territories.
Ruysch's 1690-95 painting "Still Life with Devil's Trumpet, a Cactus, a Fig Branch, Honeysuckle and Other Flowers in a Blue Vase Resting on a Ledge" exemplifies her innovative approach. The work features numerous flowers and plant specimens that were just beginning to be cultivated in Dutch hothouses. At its center blooms a White Devil's Trumpet, a night-blooming plant from Mexico and Asia, rendered in exquisitely fine detail with folding white petals. The composition includes a yellow capitaneja from Mexico, red trumpet vine from North America, and a prickly pear cactus that had only arrived at the Hortus Medicus from the Dutch colony of Curaçao in 1890.
A 1692 portrait of Ruysch by Michiel van Musscher reveals both the esteem in which she was held and intriguing insights into her working methods. Seated at a desk with a blank canvas behind her, she holds a palette and brush while placing a flower in a vase. Books and prints pile the table, suggesting their use as references for final compositions. This approach was practical necessity rather than artistic choice, as very few of her works could have been painted entirely from live specimens. The abundant bouquets could never have fit into the small vases that supposedly contained them, and she featured flowers that bloomed at different times of year and existed in different climates.
Ruysch's inclusion of entomological subjects further demonstrates her artistic liberties with natural law. Her still-lifes teem with animal and insect life including butterflies, beetles, grasshoppers, bees, wasps, ants, dragonflies, and lizards, all painted in meticulous detail. However, native and exotic species appear together in the same compositions, as do nocturnal and diurnal butterflies. Rather than detracting from her knowledge or skill, these works can be understood as natural Cabinets of Curiosities on canvas, designed to appeal to her knowledgeable clientele who were interested in botany, scientific exploration, and art.
While building her successful and highly lucrative career, Ruysch married portrait painter Juriaen Pool in 1693. The couple had nine children between 1695 and 1706, with a tenth following in 1711. Remarkably, Ruysch's artistic production slowed only slightly during her child-bearing and child-rearing years. Pool, like her father, supported her talent, and their combined efforts helped her overcome many obstacles facing female painters of that era. Pool may have sponsored her admission to the Confrerie Pictura, as both husband and wife were elected in 1701, with Ruysch identified by her married name, Mrs. Pool.
Frederick Ruysch proved instrumental in securing his daughter's appointment as court painter to Johann Wilhelm II in 1708. Letters between the two men reveal that Frederick advised Johann Wilhelm on expanding his cabinet of curiosities while praising his daughter's artistic skills. Ruysch's election to the Confrerie Pictura and her position as court painter elevated the already successful artist to new heights and appeared to increase her desire to experiment.
During the first two decades of the 18th century, Ruysch's canvases became increasingly larger and her bouquets more sumptuous. In 1710, she created a magnificent bouquet and accompanying fruit piece for wealthy Leiden textile merchant Pieter de la Court van der Voort, who was both one of the period's most important Dutch art collectors and a renowned, innovative gardener. These works took Ruysch a full year to complete and represented her most expensive sale ever at a phenomenal 1,300 guilders.
Determined to stay current with art world trends, Ruysch responded to growing Rococo influence in the early 1720s by adopting bluish tones, lighter palettes, and brighter backgrounds. However, in 1723, she and her husband won 75,000 guilders in the Amsterdam lottery, a windfall that meant she no longer needed to paint for income. Her output slowed considerably following this good fortune.
When Ruysch reached approximately 75 years of age, she began producing about one painting annually for the next decade, likely for personal satisfaction rather than financial necessity. Though more modest in size and ambition than her earlier works, these late paintings still demonstrated her desire to keep pace with contemporary styles. Clearly proud of her ability to create such works in her seventies and eighties, she included her age in the signature line of almost all her late paintings.
Ruysch was held in such high regard that a compendium of 12 poems dedicated to her was published in 1750, the year she died at age 86. She continued commanding high auction prices throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, with her works featured in both private collections and museums. However, her reputation and fame declined significantly over the centuries due to both art historical snobbery and sexism.
Still-life painting was positioned at the bottom of the 17th-century Hierarchy of Genres, and historians now fully recognize how female painters were historically marginalized by male art historical establishments. While artists like Artemisia Gentileschi and Michaelina Wautier are gaining rightful recognition, Ruysch's subject matter can still work against her. A recent review of the Museum of Fine Arts exhibition dismissed her paintings as "essentially – even merely – decorative, like the highest order of wallpaper," despite praising their technical execution.
This attitude suggests the natural world is not worthy of serious artistic attention. However, those who take time to examine the sublime details of Ruysch's paintings cannot fail to share her awe of nature's bounty and innovation. While she may never return to the level of fame she enjoyed during her lifetime, for those who share the passion for art and nature that characterized her 17th and 18th-century collectors, Ruysch's artistic star continues to shine brightly in the art historical firmament.
