Terms and conditions of use
Flowerpiece
(late 17th century)
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Measurements
- 70.4 × 54.6 cm
- Inscription
- inscribed in brown paint l.c.r.: Rachel (Rach underlined) Ruysch (Ruy underlined)
- Accession Number
- 1417-4
- Department
- International Painting
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Mr Norton E. Grimwade in memory of his wife Mrs Norton E. Grimwade, 1945
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited - Gallery location
- 17th Century & Flemish Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International - About this work
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Amsterdam in the Golden Age saw the rise of an industry of exceptionally skilled specialist flower painters, many of whom were women, such as Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), to whom this flowerpiece was once attributed. The demand for such pictures was fuelled by the contemporary passion for botany and the exotic flower bulbs arriving from Levant; tulips, anemones, hyacinths and crocuses. The king of these flowers was Semper Augustus, the red and white ‘flamed’ tulip, which features prominently here. In 1636, at the height of Dutch tulip mania, a single bulb cost several years’ of an artisan’s wage. Indeed, the price of the flowers depicted in canvases such as these far exceeded the pictures themselves.
- Subjects (general)
- Botanical
- Subjects (specific)
- dark (colour attribute) flower pieces rose (genus) still lifes
- Frame
- Reproduction, 2017, based on a Dutch ogee frame from c.1680. This project was generously supported by NGV Foundation Member Tony Cardamone.
Frame
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The former framing of Flowerpiece (1417-4) was in the manner of eighteenth century French frames, a Louis XIV style using gilded composition ornament on a wooden base.
The painting was re-framed in 2017 with a frame based on seventeenth century Dutch forms, using a timber finish.
The frame uses a profile with a curved outer edge continuing the curved frame form of the front.
The frame was made in London and fitted to the painting in August 2017.The painting was cleaned in 2000.
This frame has been generously supported by Tony Cardamone, Member, NGV Foundation.
- Framemaker
- Reproduction - commissioned by the NGV
- Date
- 2017