Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art

Rachel Ruysch, Still-life with Roses, Tulips and Sunflower, 1710, The National Gallery, London, Private Collection Janice and Brian Capstick

Rachel Ruysch’s magnificent, deceptively realistic floral still lifes with plants and fruits, butterflies and insects from the most diverse regions of the world already became sought-after and expensive collector's items during her lifetime. Demand was so great that the Amsterdam painter could afford to produce merely a few works a year. As the daughter of the renowned professor of anatomy and botany, Frederik Ruysch, the first female member of the Confrerie Pictura, court painter in Düsseldorf, lottery game winner and the mother of ten children, she was an exceptional figure in her time. The Alte Pinakothek presents the world's first major monographic exhibition of her work., revealing a world between art and science, fine painting and artistic freedom for illustrious patrons in Amsterdam, Düsseldorf and Florence.

The website includes additional information about the exhibition and Ruysch’s work.

Exhibition organized by Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston