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De Poolse Muts

Balthasar van der Astc. 1620-30

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

Still-life painting began in the Northern Netherlands (present-day Holland) around the turn of the 1600s. Still-life painter Balthasar van der Ast made this precise botanical study of a pink carnation as a reference that he could add later to a painting of an elaborate bouquet of flowers. Van der Ast inscribed the name “The Polish Cap,” on the sheet to suggest that the flower came from foreign lands.

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  • Title: De Poolse Muts
  • Creator: Balthasar van der Ast (Dutch, 1593/94-1657)
  • Date Created: c. 1620-30
  • Physical Dimensions: Sheet: 30.2 x 19.9 cm (11 7/8 x 7 13/16 in.)
  • Type: Drawing
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2019.1
  • Medium: brush and watercolor in red, green, and yellow with white heightening or grey wash on antique laid cream paper
  • Inscriptions: recto, De Poolse Muts in brown ink, monogrammed BA lower right in faded black ink, numbered 274 in brown ink lower left, verso, erased or rubbed chalk numbers, upper left, watermark: basel crozier
  • Fun Fact: According to Christian legend, carnations appeared when the Virgin Mary shed tears as Jesus carried the cross, thus the flower’s traditional association with Mother’s Day.
  • Department: Drawings
  • Culture: Netherlands, 17th century
  • Credit Line: John L. Severance Fund
  • Collection: DR - Dutch
  • Accession Number: 2019.1
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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