The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 6, 2024

Study of a Tulip (Wit en root boode)

Study of a Tulip (Wit en root boode)

c. 1645
(Dutch, c.1612–1673)
Netherlands
Point of brush and transparent and opaque watercolors with traces of graphite and gum glazing on antique laid paper
Sheet: 31.2 x 20.6 cm (12 5/16 x 8 1/8 in.)
Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.130
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

In 17th-century Holland, some tulip bulbs were as expensive as a stately Amsterdam canal house.

Description

This image of a tulip was made as part of a tulip book used as a grower’s marketing tool during the so-called tulip mania, a speculative bubble in 17th-century Holland, when ten tulip bulbs could cost more than a stately Amsterdam canal house. The striations on the tulip, which were caused by a virus in the bulb, made it especially valuable. Pieter Holsteyn II was one of many artists in the Netherlands at the time who specialized in botanical illustration.This tulip's Dutch name, inscribed on the sheet, means "white and red messenger."
  • 1992
    Sotheby's, London, 14 December 1992, lot 136
    with Johan Bosch van Rosenthal, Amsterdam
    Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH
    March 2, 2020
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).
  • {{cite web|title=Study of a Tulip (Wit en root boode)|url=false|author=Pieter Holsteyn II|year=c. 1645|access-date=06 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.130