Still Life with Flowers and Fruit

Van Huysum is known for his detailed still-lifes, consisting of luxuriously composed flowers in a classical syle vase, standing on a stone plinth or table, often in a niche. Early works such as Flower Still-life (1706; Hamburg, Kunsthalle), show a traditional, symmetrical pictorial composition. This and other early flower and fruit still-lifes reveal the influence of Cornelis de Heem and Abraham Mignon. The later flower pictures show no apparent symmetry in their arrangement, with almost late Baroque or Rococo compositions. The flower-pieces from van Huysum’s most productive period are presented almost exclusively in an S-shaped arrangement, the only other compositional form being the diagonal—both typical forms of the Rococo. Van Huysum was most famous, however, for the extreme realism of his fruit and flowers, showing extraordinary accuracy of such details as the veins of individual petals, the filaments of the calyxes, dew drops and insects. He often painted tulips, roses, and the crown imperial, a large red flower that came to symbolize the death of Christ. Comment on works: Landscapes; Still Life