Cultivators: Rachel Ruysch

Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750) was a Dutch still-life painter from the Netherlands, specializing in depicting flowers. Her career spanned over six decades and earned her international fame. She is now considered the best-documented female painter of the Dutch Golden Age.

For Further Reading: 

• Mauritshuis: Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750) Famous both at home and abroad
• Rachel Ruysch’s Exquisite Still Lifes Revolutionized the Form
• Cosmopolis: Rachel Ruysch
• Huygens instituut: Ruysch, Rachel

This month, we’re talking about cultivators — women who nurtured, cross-pollinated, experimented, or went to great lengths to better understand and protect the natural world.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello. My name is Abby Dulk. I'm a producer at
Wondermedia Network, and I'm so excited to be guest hosting
this episode of Womanica. This month, we're talking about cultivators,
women who nurtured, cross pollinated, experimented, or went to great
lengths to better understand and protect the natural world. You're

(00:31):
standing in an art museum admiring a still life painting
in an ornately gilded frame. In it, a bounty of irises, hollyhowks,
African marigolds, green grapes, chestnuts, and blackberries hangs from a string.
Three butterflies rest gently on leaves or hover midair, as

(00:53):
if drawn in by the sweet fragrances of the blooms.
Each petal wing and even an individual green of pollen
is painstakingly detailed with delicate brushwork. The colors glow against
the dark background. If you take a look at the
label next to the piece, you'll see that it was

(01:14):
created by one of Holland's most celebrated painters. Let's talk
about Rachel Rausch. Rachel was born in the Hague in
sixteen sixty four to Frederick Rausch and Maria Post. She
was the eldest of ten children. From an early age,

(01:37):
Rachel showed talent in drawing and painting. She was no
doubt influenced by her family. Her grandfather was a famous architect.
Many family members on her mother's side were painters, and
her father was a botany and anatomy professor who often
drew and painted the specimens in his collection. Rachel especially

(01:59):
like to paint plants and animals. Her parents saw her
passion and allowed her to study with a painter to
hone her skills. This was unusual at the time for
a young woman. Her teacher was Willem van Aust, who
was at the time considered the best still life painter
in Amsterdam. Rachel grew up during the Dutch Golden Age,

(02:23):
a period from the late sixteenth to seventeenth centuries characterized
by great prosperity for the Netherlands. While the country established
international trade and exerted colonial power abroad, it brought home
new understandings about science, art, and the natural world. The

(02:43):
Dutch West India and Dutch East India companies imported plants
from around the world and displayed them at the Amsterdam
Botanical Garden, one of the oldest botanical gardens in Europe.
Rachel was just one of the countless artists at the
time who would have sat on under the glass ceiling
and examined the specimens new from oceans away. Initially, Rachel's

(03:08):
studies with Van Aust focused on painting forest scenes with
a small brush. She had carefully craft precise details and
insect here a blade of grass, there a spray of
white flowers in the background. She used unique techniques like
dipping moss and paint and using it as a sponge

(03:31):
to convey the texture of the forest floor. Gradually, Rachel
turned her focus from forest scenery to flowers. Her botanical
paintings were unique because she didn't actually paint from nature.
She painted from her father's specimen collections. Her father used
a method of preserving flowers that made it look as

(03:53):
if the flowers were still in bloom. That meant Rachel
could paint out of season flowers and even these flowers
together in her compositions that never would have been in
bloom at the same time. Soon, Rachel's starr as a
painter began to rise. She painted on commission for wealthy

(04:13):
clients and was offered membership to the conferee Pictoria in
the Hague, essentially an academic club for artists. She was
the first woman to receive such an honor. The prices
of her paintings were so high she only needed to
finish a few each year in order to make a living.

(04:33):
Even after Rachel got married and started raising a family,
she continued to paint. This was very rare for female
painters of the era, who typically stopped their artistic practice
once they got married. In seventeen oh eight, Rachel received
a contract to be the court painter for the Elector
Palatine Johann Wilhelm. Since she had a husband and children,

(04:57):
she was permitted to stay in Amsterdam rather than moved
to Dusseldorf, where the elector was based. In this position,
she was given an annual allowance and made one painting
per year for the electoral couple until the elector's death.
In seventeen sixteen, when the Elector died, Rachel lost her patron,
but just a few years later, in seventeen twenty two,

(05:21):
Rachel's life changed forever. The state of Holland occasionally organized
lotteries in order to raise money for the government. Rachel
and her husband had participated before and secured meager winnings,
so they decided to take a shot this time too.
They bought a ticket for ten guilders. It was the

(05:42):
winning ticket. They received seventy five thousand guilders the main prize.
Rachel may no longer have been a court painter, but
now she and her family could live comfortably for the
rest of their days. Rachel continued to paint as long
as she could, and even experiment entered with new techniques
like painting against a light background. Until then, dark backgrounds

(06:06):
were customary to show depth. In seventeen fifty she was
bestowed a book of poems collected over the course of
her painting career to commemorate her legacy. Later that year,
on October twelfth, she passed away. All month we're talking
about cultivators. For more information, find us on Facebook and

(06:28):
Instagram at Womanica Podcast. Thanks to co creators Jenny and
Liz Kaplan for letting me guest host. Talk to you tomorrow,