Jan van Huysum

Van Huysum was the last of the distinguished still-life painters active in Holland in the 17th and early 18th centuries and an internationally celebrated artist in his lifetime. His early works are more concentrated in design than his elaborate later paintings, like the Gallery's 'Flowers in a Terracotta Vase', with its lighter background and superabundance of detail.

Van Huysum was a native of Amsterdam and was trained, according to Houbraken, by his father, who was also a still-life painter. His first dated work is of 1706. Although he specialised in flower painting, van Huysum also painted a few landscapes.