Paintings of flowers were popular in the Netherlands throughout the 17th Century. Meticulously painted, they feature a variety of flora and fauna. They may appear purely decorative, but evidence suggests there is more to them than meets the eye.
As a keen gardener, I’ve always had a soft spot for these small paintings of flowers, if only I could grow such blooms! Their popularity in Holland grew alongside other categories of domestic art including still-life, genre scenes and landscape all of which were bought and displayed prominently in homes. It’s easy to think that there’s little more to these works other than what one sees – a display of pretty flowers in a vase – but I would like to explore how they came to have their distinctive appearance, what influenced their popularity and how the images have been open to different interpretations.
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