Flowers in a Terracotta Vase

This is no shy, hide-in-a-corner painting. It’s meant to dazzle, and it does. Van Huysum places us firmly below it: a worm’s eye view. We look up at it in a niche suitable for a classical sculpture. It towers above us – and this is before being placed over the mantelpiece in the grand room for which it was most likely intended.It would take a long time to identify each species of flower and this is deliberate, part of the purpose of the picture. Van Huysum is after, and achieves, excess: a profusion of natural things, a celebration of nature, an entertaining puzzle and a display of wealth, culture and fashion. There are more than 30 species in the vase – from florid roses, peonies, mauve and red poppies to the more humble primroses, apple blossom and bachelor’s buttons. He adds butterflies, a yellow ant, a fly, and hothouse fruit to the exotic mix, bringing the garden into the house as was the fashion in interior decoration. But one or two of the luscious grapes are past their best, perhaps suggesting the brevity of life but more likely indicating that a painted picture lives on long after fruit and insects, plants and flowers have vanished.A chaffinch’s nest teeters on the edge of the plinth, a little too neat and tidy to be the real thing and probably a studio prop. The burning orange terracotta of the vase speaks of the Italian sun. The two chubby babies playing on the vase are part of this natural profusion. One has stolen flowers from a vase and looks round to see who has noticed. The other watches reproachfully, a tiny bird perched on his finger. Crystal drops of cool water, feathery leaves, delicate petals breathing their scent, the quivering wings of the red admiral butterfly invading the babies‘ space – all evoke the senses of touch, of smell, even of taste.In the Dutch Republic, horticulture was a subject of national pride. This may seem like a haphazard arrangement of random blooms but each one has been carefully selected because it was rare and often very expensive. The flowers van Huysman shows weren’t all in bloom at the same time. It’s possible he painted the picture in two stages since two dates – 1736 and 1737 – are shown at the base of the vase with his signature, but some of it was probably painted from sketches and drawings he made in his own garden and in plant nurseries in Haarlem and in Amsterdam where he lived. This is a rich man’s bouquet made to look winsome and natural, but in reality is a carefully orchestrated design with an artful nod to French taste. It displays not only a passion for flowers, but an immense knowledge and understanding of them.