Vase of Flowers

Look closely at the glass vase. On its curved surface de Heem painted a reflection, and in it you can make out a window, with a cloudy sky beyond the panes and a few things standing on the sill. The Mauritshuis reads it as the window of his studio.

He painted this around 1670. Beside flower pieces from the start of the century, with their stiff, upright bouquets, it spills over in every direction. A red-and-white striped tulip leans out to one side, ears of wheat poke up between lilies and poppies, and a snail clings to a twig beside the vase. The museum counts 12 different insects around the flowers.

The Friends of the Mauritshuis bought the painting in 1993, with a large contribution from the collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, and have lent it to the museum ever since.