Justus van Huysum

Justus van Huysum the Elder ran what amounted to a family firm. Working in Amsterdam at the turn of the 18th century, he painted large flower pieces, often as part of whole decorative schemes for the walls of patrons' houses, and dealt in pictures on the side.

His real legacy was the workshop at home. He trained all four of his sons as painters, and the family made its name on one subject, flowers in vases. One of those sons was Jan van Huysum, who studied under his father and then far outshone him, becoming the most sought-after flower painter in Europe, his canvases so prized that buyers waited years for a single one.

The biographer Arnold Houbraken, who chronicled the Dutch painters of the age, said Justus was good at every kind of picture but best at flowers. Today his own work is often hard to tell from that of his sons, so completely did the family paint in one shared manner.