Still Life with Flowers

When Jan van Huysum signed this panel in 1723, most Dutch flower pieces still sat against a dark background. He set his bouquet outdoors instead. The vase stands on a stone ledge in a park, with soft green trees behind it and a statue of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, on her pedestal to one side. The terracotta vase carries a relief of playing children, and the flowers spill out of it at every angle, tulips, peonies, poppies, irises, roses, with a crown imperial hanging over the top. Butterflies have settled among the petals, and on the ledge a bird's nest holds pale eggs. The picture entered the national collection in 1809, bought for the royal museum that Louis Bonaparte, then King of Holland, had set up the year before in his palace on Dam Square.