An impossible bouquet

Nice small exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery bringing together four pictures by Jan van Huysum, the most revered Dutch still-life painter of the 18th century.

I usually find the acres of Dutch still lives you see in museums a bit dull but it was nice to see these magnificent floral pictures having s spotlight shone on them. The flowers in them were just wonderful and as you looked carefully you realised there were often tiny dew drops or little insects in painted in wonderful detail. One even had a birds nest included.

It turned out he could never had seen the complete bouquets as the flowers are all out at different time of year. Some of the pictures have two dates so it is thought he might have painted them over time adding each flower as it came into bloom.

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