Artist

Anna Ruysch

A Still Life of Flowers on a Marble Table Ledge

Anna Ruysch (Dutch, 1666–c. 1754)
Oil on canvas, 33 × 30 cm
1685
Private collection, USA

The Artist

Anna Ruysch was a Dutch still life artist. Like her sister Rachel Ruysch, Anna Ruysch painted flowers, fruit, and small animals. Her marriage in 1688 to paint dealer Isaak Hellenbroek apparently ended or greatly reduced her artistic output. The couple had at least six children, After her husband’s death in 1749, Anna continued to run the paint business with their son.

Anna did not always sign her work, so only a handful of paintings can be attributed to her with certainty. Of the few known works by the artist, most are in private hands, but at least these museum collections own her work: the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, The Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, and Musée des Beaux-arts Rouen.

In 2022, Sotheby’s sold two Anna Ruysch still life paintings at auction for £201,600 and £327,000, respectively.

Art Herstory is grateful to the private collector who allowed us to reproduce their Anna Ruysch painting on a note card. We are also grateful to the curator who brokered the arrangement.

Current and past exhibitions featuring Anna Ruysch:

Four paintings by Anna Ruysch are included in Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into Art, the world’s first major monographic exhibition of the artist’s work. The show is presented by Munich’s Alte Pinakothek in cooperation with the Toledo Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It opens November 26, 2024 at Alte Pinakothek, where it runs through March 25, 2025. It then moves to the Toledo Museum of Art (April 13–July 27, 2025) and finally to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (August 23–December 7, 2025).