Description

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Study of a Tulip (Gemarmerde van Jasper), c. 1645. Pieter Holsteyn II (Dutch, c.1612–1673). Brush and watercolor in crimson, grey, and green over traces of charcoal on antique laid paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 2019.5

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.”

These images of tulips—each slightly different from the next—once belonged to albums of similar drawings compiled during the “tulip mania,” a time in 1600s Holland when 10 tulip bulbs could cost more than a stately Amsterdam canal house. Tulip books were kept by collectors or used by growers to show potential buyers the flower they could expect from the bulb. The stripes on the tulips, caused by a virus, made these red and white specimens especially valuable. To elevate their perceived value even further, each was given a lofty name, such as “marriage of jasper stone”
(Gemarmerde van Jasper), “Antwerp” (Anavers), the name of a collector or grower (Perregoen Machieu), “white and red messenger” (wit en root boode),“little trumpet”(‘troosje), and Admiral Winckel, the family name of one of the largest tulip growers in the period (AmmiraelWinckel).