Dutch Flowers

7 Oct 2023-7 Jan 2024

Paul Theodor van Brussel, Fruit and Flowers, 1789. Credit: © The National Gallery, London

Overview

This exquisite exhibition explores the development of Dutch flower painting from its beginnings in the early 1600s, to its blossoming in the late 1700s.

Teeming with beauty, colour and life, Dutch flower painting captivated an age. These popular studies blossomed throughout the 1600s and 1700s, combining meticulous technique and rich detail with abundant, often fantastical compositions.

This exhibition brings ten of the finest examples of Dutch flower painting from the National Gallery to Plymouth for the very first time.

See works by leading artists in the field including Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder ((1573–1621), Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750) and Jan van Huysum (1682–1749).

Specially commissioned works by British artist Kedisha Coakley that explore the relationship between the trade in fruit, flowers and seeds, and empire will also be on display, encouraging you to reconsider social and historical narratives from a different perspective.

Admission free.
No need to book.