Rachel Ruysch – Nature into Art: exhibition at the Alte Pinakothek with the participation of the SNSB research
Alte Pinakothek, München
26. November 2024 – 16. März 2025
No other Dutch artist has received as much praise during her lifetime as the Amsterdam painter Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750). Her biographer admiringly called her
“Holland’s artistic miracle” and “our ingenious art heroine”.
Her magnificent, deceptively realistic flower still lifes with plants and fruits, butterflies and insects from various regions of the world were already considered sought-after and expensive collector’s items during her lifetime. The demand was so great that the Amsterdam painter could afford to produce only a few paintings a year. As the daughter of the renowned professor of anatomy and botany Frederik Ruysch, the first female member of the esteemed Pictura artists’ guild in The Hague, court painter to the Wittelsbach Elector Johann Wilhelm of the Palatinate in Düsseldorf, lottery winner and mother of ten children, she was an exceptional figure in her time. Nevertheless, her life and work have not yet been sufficiently researched.
Still Life of Flowers in a Glass Vase on a Marble Shelf, 1710
Oil on canvas (88.9 × 71.1 cm) Inventory number L1317
The National Gallery, London
On permanent loan from the Janice and Brian Capstick Collection © Private Collection
Botanische Staatssammlung München – SNSB
Photo: © Verena Steindl
Photo: © Haydar Koyupinar
Bavarian State Painting Collections, Munich
Natural science collections as artistic inspiration
The focus is on the artistic and intellectual environment in which Rachel Ruysch lived and worked. In particular, the connections between her work and the major scientific questions of the 17th and 18th centuries will be traced. The famous collection of natural science specimens assembled by her father, Frederik Ruysch, was probably an essential source of inspiration for her artistic work.
The Alte Pinakothek is presenting around 80 paintings from national and international lenders from 14 countries, including 57 paintings by Rachel Ruysch herself, around 41 works on paper, almost 600 zoological and botanical specimens, and historical optical instruments. The SNSB is pleased to support this extraordinary exhibition with more than 100 objects on loan from the Zoologische Staatssammlung München (ZSM-SNSB) and the Botanische Staatssammlung München (BSM-SNSB).
Information about the exhibition:
www.pinakothek.de/nature-into-art
An exhibition organized by the Alte Pinakothek (Munich), the Toledo Museum of Art (Ohio) and the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston)