Rijksmuseum acquires Maria van Oosterwijck’s first work

Rijksmuseum has won his first masterpiece through Dutch Golden Age still life painter Maria Van Oosterwijck (1630-93). In 2023, the acquisition of Vanitas Still Life (circa 1690) made Rijksmuseum just the second museum in the Netherlands (the other one in Mauritshuis) owned Van Oosterwijck. After extensive research and restoration, the painting was on display in the museum on March 4.

Maria van Oosterwijck’s work was very slow, intentionally working, creating an unusual natural painting of sketched flowers she made with plant illustrations as a guide rather than actual floral arrangements. This approach leads to scientifically accurate depictions of flowers that are not found in real life in the same bouquet.

She puts the flowers in a vase, sometimes elaborate flowers, on a dark background on a stone ledge or niche. They are decorated with small animals (butterflies, lizards, snails). Her careful attention to detail adds new depth and realism to the tradition of Dutch flower painting. This also led to a very small length of her career. Today, Maria van Oosterwijck has only 30 works of art.

She was widely recognized throughout her life as an outstanding still life painter. Cosimo III de’Medici soon became the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who saw her work while traveling to Amsterdam in 1667 and declared that she was as skilled as her teacher, the distinguished life painter Willem van Aelst. A seal of recognition for famous art patrons and is linked to all courts in Europe. She further improves herself by hiring agents to promote and sell jobs abroad.

Her reputation quickly spread beyond the scope of her homeland, making her the first Dutch female artist at Garner International Fame. Louis XIV sets the trend of royalty collecting her work, while other European champions are in his footsteps. The only still life of Maria van Oosterwijck is the Kunthistorisches Museum, now located in Vienna, obtained directly from the artist by the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I of Austria and his wife Margaret Theresa of Spain. They were so satisfied with it that Margaret Theresa’s portrait of Maria uses diamonds in the frame as a gift of thanks.

Van Oosterwijck specializes in still life in flowers, a bouquet of flowers plays a central role in the recently obtained painting of “Vanitas”, a work of art that urges the audience to reflect on the vanity of worldly life in light of death. She depicts various other objects in the painting, including the Bible, the skull, a jewelry box and two tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments. These elements convey profound religious significance, and the work occupies a crucial place in her work. The artist grew up in a pious environment—her father and grandfather were church ministers—and according to contemporary terms, herself was “very religious.” It is worth noting that Van Oosterwijck explains the meaning of the picture on paper in the foreground.

The painting was inspected in detail after its purchase in 2023, indicating that Van Oosterwijck made numerous changes during the painting process. Examples of these changes include her excessive hourglass and a completely complete snake crawling into the wall. After the study is completed, recovery begins. The process involves removing yellowed varnish and excessive from early restorations. Now, the painting is as close to its original state as possible.