Rachel Ruysch at the MFA
Friday, November 14 at 11 am
Friday, November 14 at 11 am
We are privileged to have Dr. Antien Knapp, the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe, lead the tour of Rachel Ruysch’s extraordinary floral bouquet paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries. Ruysch was considered both an artist and a naturalist, merging art and science in her still lifes. She addresses survival and loss, beauty and violence, and other meanings of her work.
The exhibit is free with a museum membership or the price of admission to the museum. Meet at the entrance to the exhibit on the first floor by no later than 11 AM when the tour begins. Lunch will follow in the museum cafeteria. Please register with Jennifer Coplon jencoplon@gmail.com.
More about the exhibit follows below.
In the still life paintings of Dutch artist Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), floral bouquets appear alive and rich with movement: petals and stems droop and rise and colorful lizards crawl across stone ledges set against dark backgrounds. These astonishing displays, rendered with a skill that eclipsed many of her male contemporaries, earned Ruysch fame across Europe in her lifetime—an era when few women attained artistic prominence.
“Rachel Ruysch: Artist, Naturalist, and Pioneer” is the first comprehensive solo exhibition dedicated to the artist. It brings together 35 of her finest paintings from museums and private lenders across the United States and Europe alongside plant and insect specimens as well as work by other female artists, including Anna Ruysch, Maria Sibylla Merian, and Alida Withoos. Seeing these provocative juxtapositions, visitors can gain insight into the central role women played in the production of scientific knowledge in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries.
As global trade routes expanded in the 17th century, thousands of new plant specimens arrived in the Netherlands for cultivation in greenhouses and botanical gardens. Ruysch was among the first artists to introduce new species, from passionflowers to cacti, into her flower still lifes. Merging art and science, these paintings are far from just decorative; they’re riddles, hints of a deeper understanding of the natural world. They speak of survival and loss, the delicate balance between beauty and violence, and the deeper narratives of colonial expansion unfolding beneath the surface. Visitors are invited to celebrate the beauty of Ruysch’s work while discovering the hidden stories woven within.