Rachel Ruysch

Rachel Ruysch: Artist, Naturalist, and Pioneer

August 23–December 7, 2025

In the still life paintings of Dutch artist Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), floral bouquets appear alive and rich with movement: petals and stems droop and rise and colorful lizards crawl across stone ledges set against dark backgrounds. These astonishing displays, rendered with a skill that eclipsed many of her male contemporaries, earned Ruysch fame across Europe in her lifetime—an era when few women attained artistic prominence.

“Rachel Ruysch: Artist, Naturalist, and Pioneer” is the first comprehensive solo exhibition dedicated to the artist. It brings together 35 of her finest paintings from museums and private lenders across the United States and Europe alongside plant and insect specimens as well as work by other female artists, including Anna Ruysch, Maria Sibylla Merian, and Alida Withoos. Seeing these provocative juxtapositions, visitors can gain insight into the central role women played in the production of scientific knowledge in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries.