Study of a Tulip (Perregoen Machieu)
Medium
Point of brush and transparent and opaque watercolors with traces of graphite and gum glazing on antique laid paper
Dimensions
36 × 27.3 cm
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift
Accession Number
2020.133
Tags
About this artwork
This image of a tulip was made as part of a tulip book used as a grower’s marketing tool during the so-called tulip mania, a speculative bubble in 17th-century Holland, when ten tulip bulbs could cost more than a stately Amsterdam canal house. The striations on the tulip, which were caused by a virus in the bulb, made it especially valuable. Pieter Holsteyn II was one of many artists in the Netherlands at the time who specialized in botanical illustration.