"Flowers and Fruit in a Forest," Rachel Ruysch, 1714.

Here's our old friend Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), one of the greatest still life artists of all time, bar none. The daughter of a scientist, she learned to observe nature and painted it with amazing detail.

She is celebrated for the detail and precision of her work, straddling the line between scientific illustration and art. Here we have a heap of fruit (apricots, plums, peaches, grapes, melons, pomegranates, and even an ear of Indian corn) crowned with an array of flowers (mostly roses and tulips, and I think a peony and some morning glories). Fluttering about are moths and butterflies and other insects. In the upper left a bird sits in a nest, and a lizard creeps along a branch.

While it all looks glorious, it is a bit of a fantasy. Not all of this would be in season at the same time; by the time the peaches and plums would be ripe, the tulips would only be a memory, and the grapes not quite ready.

She had a long and full life, a happy marriage, earned a good living, and won great acclaim in her lifetime. Quite a lady!

Happy Flower Friday!

From the Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Augsburg, Germany.

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