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Article: Ruysch, Rachel (1664–1750)
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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RUYSCH, RACHEL (1664
–
1750)
RUYSCH, RACHEL
(1664
–
1750), Dutch painter. One of the most successful women artists of early modernity, Ruysch was born in The Hague. While growing up, she assisted her father, Frederik Ruysch, a professor of anatomy and botany, by recording the appearances of the exotic plants he studied. The resulting works may have encouraged her father, who was also an amateur painter and collector, to apprentice his fifteen-year-old daughter to the Amsterdam still life painter Willem van Aelst (1627
–
c. 1683). While it was uncommon for a girl to train for a profession outside the home, painting still lifes posed fewer obstacles than other genres ...