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Study of a Tulip (Gemarmerde van Jasper)
Pieter Holsteyn IIc. 1645
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
This image of a tulip was made as part of a tulip book used as a grower’s marketing tool during the so-called tulip mania, a speculative bubble in 17th-century Holland, when ten tulip bulbs could cost more than a stately Amsterdam canal house. The striations on the tulip, which were caused by a virus in the bulb, made it especially valuable. Pieter Holsteyn II was one of many artists in the Netherlands at the time who specialized in botanical illustration. This tulip's Dutch name, inscribed on the sheet, translates roughly to "marriage of jasper stone."
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Details
- Title: Study of a Tulip (Gemarmerde van Jasper)
- Creator: Pieter Holsteyn II (Dutch, c.1612-1673)
- Date Created: c. 1645
- Physical Dimensions: Sheet: 32 x 21.1 cm (12 5/8 x 8 5/16 in.)
- Provenance: Galerie Kurt Meissner, Zürich, Switzerland, (likely) Koller Auctionen, Zürich, Switzerland, Haboldt & Co., Paris, France, Private Collection, Amsterdam, Netherlands, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Drawing
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2019.5
- Medium: brush and watercolor in crimson, grey, and green over traces of charcoal on antique laid paper
- Inscriptions: recto, Gemarmerde van Jasper. in black ink, brown ink inscription in different hand cut off, lower border, verso, Morel and 7/79/36 and 40 and 42 and 36 in graphite, watermark: pelican within wreath
- Fun Fact: In 17th-century Holland, some tulip bulbs were as expensive as a stately Amsterdam canal house!
- Department: Drawings
- Culture: Netherlands, 17th century
- Credit Line: John L. Severance Fund
- Collection: DR - Dutch
- Accession Number: 2019.5
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