116 5 MAR IA VAN OOSTERWI JCK (NOOTDORP 1630 –1693 UI TDAM) Flowers and Shells c. 1685 Oil on canvas 72 × 56 cm Signed lower right: “MARIA VAN OOSTERWYCK” Provenance: Acquired 1740 from Gerhard Morel, probably in Antwerp; inv. “before 1741”, fol. 166v, 2503; cat. Dresden 1765, G.E. 773; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Gal.-Nr. 1334 Literature: Gammelbo 1960, no. 176; exh. cat. Dresden 1983, p. 142, no. 117, fig. 79; Gerson 1983 p. 239; exh. cat. Osaka/ Tokyo/Sydney 1990, p. 221; Gemar-Koeltzsch 1995, vol. 3, no. 298/4; cat. Dresden 2007, p. 393. In 1740, when the elector-king Augustus III arranged the purchase of two paintings by Maria van Oosterwijck for his collection, he was by no means the first Saxon monarch to show his appreciation for the extraordinary quality of still life painting by this Dutch artist. More than 50 years earlier, the Elector John George III, who had stayed in the Hague in 1688 on a diplomatic mission, purchased three works by Oosterwijck for his art collection.1 By her mid-thirties, the young specialist in flower pieces and smaller-format breakfast pieces (Banketjestukken) had achieved European-wide celebrity. Her list of notable clients included Cosimo de’ Medici and Emperor Leopold I, and later Louis XIV, the Polish king Johann III Sobieski, and naturally the stadtholders of the Low Countries. Maria was the daughter of a pastor, and grew up in a familial milieu that included a number of painters, theologians, and scholars. She seems to have operated her first studio in her grandfather’s home in Delft before relocating to Leiden, and later to Utrecht. During the five years she resided in that town, the works of Jan Davidsz. de Heem– then chief among Utrecht’s still life painters – had a profound influence on her style. Finally, she settled in Amsterdam, where she was joined in an artistic as well as close private friendship with the painter Willem van Aelst, who was also her immediate neighbour. Maria van Oosterwijck rejected repeated advances from her fellow artist (her exact contemporary in age), remaining unmarried until the end of her life. Her works themselves – only slightly more than 40 paintings have survived – provide unmistakable evidence of their close artistic association. The paintings of both De Heem and Van Aelst left their mark on Maria van Oosterwijck’s oeuvre, firstly in the selection of motifs and compositional arrangements of her splendid bouquets of flowers and Pronkstillevens – ornate or elaborate still lifes – and secondly in her basic stylistic approach. Works like the still life Flowers and Shells and a closely related flower still life now in Copenhagen2 display an approach to storytelling and lighting whose origins are traceable to De Heem. At the same time, Maria van Oosterwijck’s flower bouquets seem more delicate, elegant, and decorative, owing to her skilful arrangement of showy, small-petalled yet voluminous flowers and grass blades, as well as her more effective handling of light. Characteristic of her bouquets is a combination of splendid cultivated flowers like sunflower, hibiscus, and carnation with herbs and grasses found growing in the wild. The striped canary grass that hangs downward from the vase, for example, is a trademark of her flower arrangements. Frequently encountered in her bouquets as well is the sunflower, turned slightly to one side, as the crowning element of the arrangement. Still present in the second half of the 17th century, evidently, was an awareness of its symbolism. As the flower that followed the sun in the course of the day, it stood metaphorically for followers of Christ who remained devout throughout the day. This interpretation is already found in 16th and 17th century emblem literature,3 and seems to have been widely known. Rather than referring to an emblem book in this image, however, Maria van Oosterwijck – the daughter of a preacher who was characterised by contemporaries as modest and deeply pious – instead orients herself on a New Testament verse (John 8:12): “I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” | UTA NE IDHARDT 1 Gerson 1983, p. 239. John George (Johann Georg) III acquired “twee bloemenpotten en een feston”. Their present whereabouts are unknown. 2 Bouquet of Flowers in a Glass Vase, signed and dated “MARIA VAN OOSTERWYCK”, 1658, oil on canvas, 101 × 77.5 cm, Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst, inv. no. SP. 542. 3 See Segal 1990, p. 221.
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