Rachel Ruysch
You know that we are trying to do our best to present female artists—today we can do it thanks to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. :) Enjoy!
Rachel Ruysch was an exceptional personality in her day. She was both a gifted artist and a widely educated person who concentrated on the natural sciences. The foundations for this study were laid by her parents; her father was one of the leading anatomists and botanists of his time. It therefore comes as no surprise that his daughter specialized in flower painting in which she could integrate her own extensive botanical training.
Her pictures are characterized by a technical perfection that reaches its apogee in the Academy Gallery bouquet. In this painting she created a sense of formal drama in the tension between the silhouette of the bouquet and the plasticity of each individual flower, centering the floral abundance around the white rose in the lower center.
The realism of each flower portrait is deceptive because this opulent arrangement could never have existed in natura. The various flower specimens and fruits blossomed and bore fruit in different seasons. Only in the imagination could they ever be assembled into a bunch. The source of the flower piece in its entirety was the artist’s fantasy; it is the sum total of innumerable paintings of blossoms, plants, fruits and insects that she accumulated during the course of her botanical studies and introduced into her art in paintings such as this.
P.S. Interested in women artists forgotten by art history? Read a story of Hanna Hirsch-Pauli, her friendship goals, and feminism in 19th century Stockholm here. : )