Two Tulips thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case TOPIC, Shelf DP1

Two Tulips

Watercolour
c.1770 - 1830 (painted)
Artist/Maker

Verelst was a noted Dutch painter of flower pieces--decorative compositions in which the artist brought together flowers that would never bloom simultaneously in nature. To create such a composition an artist would work through the seasons to build up a collection of drawings and watercolour studies, such as this, to work from. We know that it was a widespread practice for artists to work from their own 'library' of sketches because it is sometime possible to identify a sketch with the same specimen in a finished oil painting or to find the same flower repeated in different paintings.

This study of striped tulips is botanically accurate, but is clearly intended for a decorative rather than a scientific purpose. The tulip was a fashionable and popular flower in the 17th century, and striped specimens were highly valued.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleTwo Tulips (published title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on paper
Brief description
Watercolour, 'Two Tulips', Anonymous Dutch (?), ?late eighteenth or early nineteenth century
Dimensions
  • Height: 192mm
  • Width: 239mm
Gallery label
Simon Verelst 1644-1721 Tulips (Tulipa sp.) After 1668 Simon Verelst was a famous painter of flower-pieces - those ornamental confections of flowers that would never bloom simultaneously in nature. To create these compositions, he would work from a 'library' of sketches. These views of a tulip, for instance, might be incorporated into a bouquet. Often the same flower appears in more than one painting. London Watercolour V&A: 263-1876
Object history
Joseph Hogarth & Sons (dealer), London; from whom purchased by the museum, 16 May 1876 for £5. 5s. 0d
Subject depicted
Summary
Verelst was a noted Dutch painter of flower pieces--decorative compositions in which the artist brought together flowers that would never bloom simultaneously in nature. To create such a composition an artist would work through the seasons to build up a collection of drawings and watercolour studies, such as this, to work from. We know that it was a widespread practice for artists to work from their own 'library' of sketches because it is sometime possible to identify a sketch with the same specimen in a finished oil painting or to find the same flower repeated in different paintings.

This study of striped tulips is botanically accurate, but is clearly intended for a decorative rather than a scientific purpose. The tulip was a fashionable and popular flower in the 17th century, and striped specimens were highly valued.
Bibliographic references
  • 'Picturing Plants: an analytical history of botanical illustration' by Gill Saunders; 1995; Zwemmer in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum
  • 'Picturing Plants: an analytical history of botancial illustration' by Gill Saunders; KWS Publishers in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum; 2009
  • Jane Shoaf Turner and Christopher White, Catalogue of Dutch and Flemish Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014, vol. II, Cat. 660, illus. p.589.
Collection
Accession number
263-1876

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Record createdDecember 16, 2003
Record URL
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