RUYSCH, Rachel
(b. 1664, Den Haag, d. 1750, Amsterdam)

Flowers, Fruit, and Insects

1716
Oil on canvas, 89 x 60 cm
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence

Nature in all its appetitive instinct slithers, licks, and chews, but discreetly around the white peaches' scented and immaculate delicacy. Ruysch was the daughter of a professor of anatomy and botany and the granddaughter of an architect. A pupil of Willem van Aelst, she was also intrigued by Otto Marseus van Schrieck's paintings with reptiles.




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