Study of a Tulip (Anvaers)

c. 1645

Study of a Tulip (Anvaers), c. 1645. Pieter Holsteyn II (Dutch, c.1612–1673). Point of brush and transparent and opaque watercolors with traces of graphite and gum glazing on antique laid paper; sheet: 31.1 x 20.6 cm (12 1/4 x 8 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.131 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 name, inscribed on the sheet, is the French word for the city of Antwerp. In 17th-century Holland, some tulip bulbs were as expensive as a stately Amsterdam canal house.