Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750)

Honeysuckle, Sweet Peas, Trumpet Lilies, Peonies, Hyacinths, Passion Flowers and other Flowers, a Pineapple and a Cactus in an Boettger Stoneware Urn with a Pale Clouded Yellow Butterfly on a marble Ledge

Details

Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750)
Honeysuckle, Sweet Peas, Trumpet Lilies, Peonies, Hyacinths, Passion Flowers and other Flowers, a Pineapple and a Cactus in an Boettger Stoneware Urn with a Pale Clouded Yellow Butterfly on a marble Ledge
with inscription 'RACHEL RUYSCH.' (lower left)
oil on canvas
35¼ x 27¾in. (89.5 x 70.5cm.)

Provenance

Possibly Juiaan Pool II, Ruysch's husband, and by descent to
Frederick Ruysch Pool (1696-1765), their eldest son, who owned, among three other paintings, 'een stuk met vreemde bloemen'(=a piece with strange flowers), painted in 1735 and valued at 750 florins.
Imported to England by John Smith in 1830, and sold for 110gns.
Richard Simmons, London, 1835.
Sir Simon Clarke, Bt., c. 1840.
W.J. Coe, Paris; Christie's, 8 June 1872, lot 44, as Rachel Ruysch (400gns to Agnew).
Purchased from the St. James's Galleries, 1960.

Literature

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., VI, London, 1835, p. 499, no. 13.
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., X, Stuttgart and Paris, 1928, p. 326, no. 88.
M.H. Grant, Rachel Ruysch, Leigh-on-Sea, 1956, p.29, no. 43.

Sale room notice

Please note that the Sir Simon Clarke, W.J. Coe and Christie's sale provenance is incorrect and should read as follows:

Malcolm Orme, Upper Belgrave Street, London; Christie's, 7 May 1887, lot 6, as 'R.Ruysch' (38gns. to Major L.).

Lot Essay

We are grateful to Marianne Berardi for confirming the attribution from a transparency. She plans to publish the present picture in her forthcoming dissertation on the artist. She dates it to 1735 (when it is known that Ruysch painted one picture 'with strange flowers'; see Provenance) by comparing the lightening of the palette with the painting sold at Christie's, Amsterdam, 13 November 1990, lot 160, which has been dated to 1739. Compositionally, she likens the present picture to A Bouquet in a glass Vase on a stone Ledge in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn (Grant, op. cit., p. 31, no. 67, pl. 24).

The inscription and the rather awkward execution of the side of the ledge appear to be reworkings of a later date. Smith, Hofstede de Groot and Grant all refer to an orange on the ledge to the right of the vase, which appears to have been painted over, but the alteration in this area is clearly visible and an X-ray report confirms this.

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