Blumenstrauß

It is characteristic of the liberal situation in Holland that independent female painters were able to assert themselves more easily there than elsewhere, even though their activity was primarily limited to the “female” genres of still lifes and floral paintings. As an extremely successful floral painter, Rachel Ruysch, together with her husband, the portraitist Juriaen Pool, was accepted in 1701 into the Guild of St. Luke in The Hague. In 1708, she was appointed court painter to the Elector Palatine, Johann Wilhelm.