MUNICH - Her magnificent, deceptively realistic floral still lifes with plants and fruits, butterflies and insects from the most diverse regions of the world already became sought-after and expensive collector's items during her lifetime. Demand was so great that the Amsterdam painter could afford to produce merely a few works a year. As the daughter of the renowned professor of anatomy and botany, Frederik Ruysch, the first female member of the Confrerie Pictura, court painter in Düsseldorf, lottery game winner and the mother of ten children, she was an exceptional figure in her time. The Alte Pinakothek will present the world's first major monographic exhibition of her work. Discover the wondrous world of Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750) between art and science, perfected fine painting and artistic freedom amidst illustrious patrons in Amsterdam, Düsseldorf and Florence.

Exhibition organized by Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Curators: Bernd Ebert (Alte Pinakothek Munich), Robert Schindler (Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio), Anna C. Knaap (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Research Assistant Alte Pinakothek Munich: Selvi Göktepe

The exhibition is held under the patronage of Sophie Prinzessin von Bayern.

26.11.2024 — 16.03.2025

Section 1. An auspicious Beginning

The exhibition opens with the Amsterdam artist’s early work. A selection of the most important paintings from the first decades of her career is juxtaposed with works by her teacher Willem van Aelst, other contemporary still life painters such as Jan Davidsz. de Heem and Otto Marseus van Schrieck, as well as Maria van Oosterwijck, who had been the leading painter of floral still lifes up until that time.

Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750) and Michiel van Musscher (1645-1705), Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), 1692, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Adele Veronica Satkus Bequest, Walter and Leonore Annenberg Acquisitions Endowment Fund, Lila Acheson Wallace, Women and the Critical Eye, Charles and Jessie Price, and Henry and Lucy Moses Fund Inc. Gifts, Victor Wilbour Memorial Fund, Hester Diamond Gift, and funds from various donors, 2023

Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), Festoon with Flowers and Fruit, 1682, Národní Galerie Praha, Prag © National Gallery Prague, Photograph: National Gallery Prague 2024

Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), Flower Piece, about 1682, Inventory number 5798, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen – Alte Pinakothek Munich © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen – Alte Pinakothek Munich, Photo: Nicole Wilhelms

Section 2. The two Sisters

Few people today know that Rachel had a younger sister called Anna. She was also a talented painter of floral still lifes but did not achieve the professional success of her sister. Anna’s life and work have hardly been researched; only around a dozen paintings by her are known today. While the two sisters’ early careers seem to have evolved in a similar way, hardly any works by Anna are known that were painted after her marriage. Still lifes by the sisters are to be presented together for the first time in this exhibition.

Section 3. Art, Nature and Science

A particular focus is placed on Rachel Ruysch’s link to botanical and zoological research at that time. The role of her father Frederik Ruysch, is traced. A renowned scholar and professor of anatomy and botany, he established an extensive and widely known collection of natural specimens and made it accessible to the public. Through her father, Rachel Ruysch had access to Amsterdam’s botanical gardens where native and non-native plants that had been brought to Europe from the expanding colonial territories could be seen. Artists used the ‘Hortus Botanicus’ as a source for their work, documented imported species and made a significant contribution to the circulation of knowledge.

Apocynaceae Gentianales, Stapelia Shinzii, Specimen pickled in alcohol, Botanische Staatssammlung München – SNSB, Photo: © Verena Steindl

Surinam Toad (Pipa pipa), Specimen pickled in alcohol, Zoologische Sammlung der Philipps-Universität Marburg © Zoologische Sammlung der Philipps-Universität Marburg, Image author: hikE

Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), Nature Piece with Surinam Toad, 1690, Musée du Grand Siècle, Saint-Cloud, Département des Hauts-de-Seine, Donation Pierre Rosenberg © Département des Hauts-de-Seine, Musée du Grand Siècle © Suzanne Nagy

Pieter Sluyter (1675-1713), Surinam Toad (Pipa pipa), Hand-colored engraving, in: Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Amsterdam 1705, Shelfmark: ESlg/2 Zool. 112 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich © Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0-licence, Shelfmark: ESlg/2 Zool. 112

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), Microscope, about 1700, Deutsches Museum von Meisterwerken der Naturwissenschaft und Technik, Munich © Deutsches Museum von Meisterwerken der Naturwissenschaft und Technik, Munich, Photograph: Deutsches Museum, CD_L7367-03, CC BY-SA 4.0

Johann Selter, Medallion of Johann Wilhelm, Elector of the Palatine © Staatliche Münzsammlung München, Photograph: Sergio Castelli

Section 4. Fame and Fortune.

Rachel Ruysch’s most successful and productive years began in 1700. In 1701, she became the first female member of the renowned artist’s society Confrerie Pictura in The Hague. She created the brilliant, colourful, and deceptively realistic bouquets of flowers with pieces of fruit and insects that established the painter’s international reputation. In 1708 she was appointed court painter to the Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm in Düsseldorf and remained in his service until his death in 1716. During this time, she regularly combined magnificent bouquets of flowers with richly depicted fruit, teeming with insects. Ruysch’s late work from 1735 onwards surprises with another change in style: the opulent and luxuriant bouquets of flowers then gave way to smaller, less dense, airier floral arrangements with echoes of the French Rococo. Obviously proud of both her advanced years and her still confident brushwork, Ruysch added her age to her signature.

Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), Bouquet of Flowers, 1708, Inventory number 430, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen – State Gallery in the New Palace Bayreuth © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek Munich, Photo: Sibylle Forster

Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), Fruit Piece, 1709, Inventory number 420, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek Munich © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek Munich, Photo: Sibylle Forster

Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), Still Life of Flowers in a Glass Vase on a Marble Ledge, 1710, The National Gallery, London, On loan from the collection of Janice and Brian Capstick © Private Collection.

Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), Fruit Piece, 1710, Private Collection © Johnny Van Haeften Ltd., London / Bridgeman Images

Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), Still Life with Flowers and Fruits, 1714, Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg, Karl und Magdalene Haberstock-Stiftung © Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg, Photo: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Nicole Wilhelms

Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), Bouquet of Flowers, 1715, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe © Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), Flower Piece, 1715, Inventory number 878, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek Munich © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek Munich, Photo: Nicole Wilhelms

Juriaen Pool (1666–1745) and Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), Juriaen Pool II with Rachel Ruysch and their son Jan Willem Pool, about 1716, Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf © Stadtmuseum Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf

Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), Fruit Still Life with Stag Beetle and Nest, 1717, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe © Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), Still Life of Exotic Flowers on a Marble Ledge, about 1735, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Gift of James and Virginia Moffett, Image courtesy of Nelson-Atkins, Digital Production & Preservation, Rick Andersen

Section 5. Changing Perspectives

In an educational space specially created for the Munich exhibition, projects by students at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Human-Centered Ubiquitous Media), the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (CreatiF Centre and Chair of Artificial Intelligence) and Sheffield Hallam University, along with the artist Margarita Berger, have creatively addressed the question: how can Rachel Ruysch’s painting method, her selection of motifs and their composition be best understood today? The resulting works, some of which transform Ruysch’s paintings into three dimensional objects, open up new perspectives for visitors on the ‘Old Master’ Ruysch’s works, enabling them to be experienced in a new way.