Rachel Ruysch

In the artist's words:

Rachel Ruysch was born in The Hague in 1664. As the daughter of the renowned anatomist and botanist Frederik Ruysch and Maria Post, she grew up in an artistic and scientific environment. After the family moved to Amsterdam in 1666, the 15-year-old Rachel Ruysch received lessons from the still life painter Willem van Aelst. In 1693, she married the portrait painter Juriaen Pool, with whom she had ten children. At the time, women were not allowed to join the Amsterdam painters' guild, but in 1701 Rachel Ruysch was the first female member to be admitted to the Pictura artists' fraternity in The Hague together with her husband. In 1708, Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz appointed her court painter. She was able to continue her work from Amsterdam. Even after the death of the Elector Palatine, her most important patron, in 1716, she had no shortage of commissions. She worked into old age and died in 1750 at the age of 86.