Peaches, grapes, and plums with a dragonfly, snail, caterpillar, moths, and other insects on a stone ledge

Details

Rachel Ruysch (The Hague bapt. 1664-1750 Amsterdam)
Peaches, grapes, and plums with a dragonfly, snail, caterpillar, moths, and other insects on a stone ledge
signed and dated 'R.R. 1683' (lower right, on the ledge)
oil on canvas laid down on panel
20 7/8 x 16 5/8 in. (53 x 42.2 cm.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 12 January 1996, lot 96, where acquired after the sale ($56,999) by the Hascoe family.

Literature

M. Berardi, 'Science into Art': Rachel Ruysch's Early Development as a Still Life Painter, Ph.D. dissertation., University of Pittsburgh, 1998, pp. 219, 221, 385, pl. 15.

Exhibited

Greenwich, Bruce Museum, Pleasures of Collecting: Part I, Renaissance to Impressionist Masterpieces, 21 September 2002-5 January 2003 (catalogue by P. Sutton).
Greenwich, Bruce Museum, Old Master Paintings from the Hascoe Collection, 2 April-29 May 2005, no. 12. (catalogue by Peter Sutton).

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Lot Essay

Signed and dated 1683, this is a remarkably early painting by Rachel Ruysch, arguably the most important woman painter of the Dutch Golden Age. In her Ph.D. dissertation, Marianne Berardi discusses this work along with five other still lifes, all of which were executed early in Ruysch's career and reflect the influence of her teacher, Willem van Aelst (loc. cit.). Painted when Rachel was only 19 years old, this fruit piece (fruytstukje) is the second earliest of Berardi's group, after the Fruit Piece with Oysters and Grapes in the Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence. As Sutton has noted (loc. cit.), a similar painting, Flower still life on a ledge, which was sold at Christie's, London, 29 June 1979, lot 41, may also be added to this group as it is dated 1682.

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