Diploma Lecture Series 2012

Absolutism to enlightenment: European art and culture 1665-1765

Jan van Huysum: the rise and strange demise of the baroque flower piece Richard Beresford

21 / 22 March 2012

Introduction: At his death in 1749 Jan van Huysum was celebrated as the greatest of all flower painters. His biographer stated that Van Huysum had ‘soared beyond all his predecessors and out of sight’. The pastellist Jean-Etienne Liotard regarded him as having perfected the oil painter’s art. Such was contemporary appreciation of his works that it is thought he was the best paid of any painter in Europe in the 18th century. Van Huysum’s reputation, however, was soon to decline. The Van Eyckian perfection of his technique would be dismissed by a generation learning to appreciate the aesthetic of impressionism. His artistic standing was then blighted by the onset of modernist taste. The 1920s and 30s saw his works removed from public display in public galleries, including both the and the Mauritshuis. The critic Just Havelaar was not the only one who wanted to ‘sweep all that flowery rubbish into the garbage’. Echoes of the same sentiment survive even today. It was not until 2006 that the artist received his first serious re-evaluation in the form of a major retrospective exhibition. If we wish to appreciate Van Huysum it is no good looking at his work through the filter an early 20th-century aesthetic prejudice. The purpose of this lecture is to place the artist’s achievement in its true cultural and artistic context. Only in this way can we hope to come to some understanding of the qualities which made Van Huysum’s work so hugely admired in his own day.

Slide list 1. Jan I Brueghel, Vase of flowers , 1605, Private collection 2. Jan I Brueghel, Gold cup with flower wreath and jewel box , 1618, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels 3. Jan I Brueghel and Peter Paul Rubens, Wreath of flowers with the Holy Family and Elizabeth with the infant St John , c 1615-16, Private collection 4. Simon de Passe after Crispijn van de Passe the younger, Vanitas: memento mori , 1612 5. Boëtius Adamsz. Bolswerdt after , Madonna in the rosary , engraving, 1611 6. Peter Paul Rubens, Four philosophers , 1611, Palazzo Pitti, 7. Jacob de Gheyn II, Portrait of Carolus Clusius , engraving, 1601 8. Carolus Clusius, Exoticorum libri decem , Leiden, 1605, title page 9. Tulipa Boloniensis , plate from Carolus Clusius, Rariorum plantarum historia , , 1601 10. Jacques de Gheyn, Tulips and fritillary in a terra cotta vase , watercolour on vellum, 1600, Lugt album, Fonadation Custodia, Paris 11. Spring . Plate from Crispijn van de Passe, Hortus Floridus , 1614 12. Jacob II de Gheyn, Flowers in a glass bottle , 1612, Gemeentemuseum, 13. Ambrosius I Bosschaert, Flowers in a roemer , 1614, National Gallery, 14. Ambrosius I Bosschaert, Flowers in a basket , 1614, Getty Museum, Los Angeles 15. Workshop of Philippe de Champaigne, Vanitas , c 1644, Musée Tessé, Le Mans 16. Wencelaus Hollar, Spring , etching, 1641 17. A fool and his money are soon parted . Emblem from Roemer Visscher, Sinne-Poppen , 1614 * 18. Ambrosius I Bosschaert, Flower piece , c1618-20, Mauritshuis, The Hague 19. Roelandt Savery, Flowers in a glass vase with lizards, shells and insects in a niche , 1603, Centraal Museum, 20. Roelandt Savery, Vase with flowers , 1612, Liechtenstein collection, Vaduz

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21. Cabinet of curiosities, illustrated in Ferrante Imperato Dell'Historia Naturale (first published Naples 1599) 22. Hendrik Goltzius, Portrait of Jan Govertsen , 1603, Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam 23. A fool spends his money on the oddest things . Emblem from Roemer Visscher, Sinne-Poppen , 1614 24. , Flowers in a basket , c 1625, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 25. Balthasar van der Ast, Flowers in a vase with shells and insects , c 1630, National Gallery, London * 26. Balthasar van der Ast, Still life with basket of flowers , c 1640-50, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm 27. Pieter II Holsteyn, Semper Augustus tulip , watercolour, c 1635-40, private collection 28. After Pieter Nolpe, Flora's fools cap , engraving, c 1637 29. Jan II Brueghel, Allegory of the tulipomania , c 1640, Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem 30. Pieter van Slingelandt, Portrait the Meerman family , 1668, Louvre, Paris 31. Jan Steen, The burgher of and his daughter , 1655, Sudeley Castle 32. Daniel Seghers, Relief of the Madonna and Child in a wreath of roses and thistles , c 1650-55, Escorial 33. Jan Davidsz de Heem, Fruit and wine glass in a cartouche , 1651, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin 34. Sunflower as an emblem of love of God , from Zacharie Heyns, Emblemata , 1625 35. Jacob Hoefnagel, Emblem of wheat growing from bones , watercolour and bodycolour heightened with gold, 1634, British Museum 36. Jan Davidsz de Heem, Bunch of flowers , c 1650, Tiroler Landesmuseum, Innsbruck * 37. , Flowers in a silver vase , 1663, Mauritshuis, The Hague 38. , Flower piece with ornamental vase , c 1670-75, Mauritshuis, The Hague 39. Maria van Oosterwijck, Flowers and grapes hanging from a ring , c 1670–90, Kenneth Reed collection (promised bequest to the AGNSW) 40. Elias van den Broeck, Vase of flowers , Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 41. Simon Verelst, Opium poppy and other flowers in a glass vase , Private collection 42. Jan Davidsz de Heem, Flowers in a landscape , Liechtenstein collection, Vaduz 43. Otto Marseus van Schrieck, Forest floor with insects and amphibians , 1662, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Brunswick 44. Elias van den Broeck, Flowers and butterflies by a ruin , date unknown, Sotheby's, London (1986) 45. , Forest floor , 1683, Rafael Vals, London (1995) 46. Rachel Ruysch, Forest floor , 1687, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 47. Rachel Ruysch, Flower vase and fruits , (signed 'JD De Heem R'), c 1685, Gemäldergalerie, Dresden * 48. Rachel Ruysch, Vase with flowers , 1700, Mauritshuis, The Hague 49. Rachel Ruysch, Still life with flowers , 1709, Private collection 50. Jan van Huysum, Hollyhock and other flowers in a glass vase , c 1710, National Gallery, London 51. Jan van Huysum, Flower piece , c 1715, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London 52. Jan van Huysum, Bouquet in a glass vase with bird's nest , c 1720, Private collection, UK 53. Jan van Huysum, Still life with flowers and fruit , c 1718-19, National Gallery of Art, Washington 54. Jan Van Huysum, Vase of flowers , 1722, Getty Museum, Los Angeles 55. Jan van Huysum, Flowers in a terra cotta vase , 1724, Los Angeles County Museum of Art * 56. Jan van Huysum, Fruit piece with hollyhock and a terra cotta garden vase holding an opium poppy , late 1720s, City of , on loan to the Rijksmuseum 57. Jan van Huysum, Flowers in a terracotta vase , c 1730(?), Private collection 58. Jan van Huysum, Fruit and flowers on a marble balustrade , 1731, Private collection * 59. Jan van Huysum, Flower piece , dated 1736 and 1737, National Gallery, London 60. Porcelain bouquet, Vincennes porcelain and gilt-bronze mounts, 1749, Staatliche Porzellansammlung, Zwinger, Dresden 61. Ambrosius Bosschaert the elder, Flower in a roemer with a tulip at the top , c 1618-19, Private collection 62. Plaque from a secrétaire, Sèvres porcelain, painted by Edme-François Bouilliat, 1776/77, Getty Museum, Los Angeles 63. Jan van Os, Flowers and fruit in a terra cotta vase on a marble balustrade , 1777 and 1778, National Gallery, London

References: Paul Taylor, Dutch flower painting, 1600-1720 , Yale University Press, 1995 Paul Taylor, Dutch flower painting, 1600-1750 (exh cat) Dulwich Picture Gallery, 1996 The temptations of Flora: Jan van Huysum (exh cat), Delft/Houston, 2006

Ambrosius I Bosschaert, Flower piece , c1618-20, Mauritshuis, The Hague

Balthasar van der Ast, Ast, der van Balthasar Still life with basket offlowers basket lifewith Still , c 1640-50, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm Stockholm Nationalmuseum, 1640-50, c ,

Willem van Aelst, Flowers in a silver vase , 1663, Mauritshuis, The Hague

Rachel Ruysch, Vase with flowers , 1700, Mauritshuis, The Hague

Jan van Huysum, Fruit piece with hollyhock and a terra cotta garden vase holding an opium poppy, late1720s, City of Amsterdam, on loan to the Rijksmuseum

Jan van Huysum, Flower piece , dated 1736 and 1737, National Gallery, London

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