Alida Withoos

Study of a fire head ( Celosia argentea ), pencil and watercolor, before 1730.
Elisha Whittelsey Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Alida Withoos (* ca. 1661 / 1662 in Amersfoort , buried 5. December 1730 in Amsterdam ) was a Dutch illustrator of botany and painter of still lifes . It is assigned to the art-historical era of the Baroque .

life and work

Alida Withoos was born in Amersfoort as the daughter of the painter Matthias Withoos (1627–1703) and the painter Wendelina van Hoorn (1618 – approx. 1680). Like her three brothers Johannes (1648 – ca. 1688), Pieter (1654–1693), Frans (1665–1705) and her sister Maria (1663 – after 1699), Alida Withoos was introduced to the art of still life painting by her father and botanical illustration.

Due to the capture of Amersfoort by France in the so-called Rampjaar in 1672, the family moved to Hoorn . Alida Withoos mainly focused on the lifelike depiction of flowers, birds, butterflies and insects. Together with her brother Pieter, along with other botany illustrators such as Maria Sibylla Merian and Maria Moninckx (approx. 1673– approx. 1757), she visited the country house of the collector and botanist Agnes Block (1629–1704) Vijverhof aan de Vecht . There she had the opportunity to paint rare animals and plants. According to various sources, Alida Withoos was able to depict the first pineapple grown in Europe here in 1687, but the image is considered lost.

In 1694 Alida Withoos drew several exotic plants for the Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam on behalf of Jan Commelin , which was just being reorganized and was supposed to centralize several botanical institutions. The watercolors became part of the so-called Moninckx Atlas , which is a monumental work of botany with over 400 plant descriptions and depictions. Carl von Linné based a large part of his taxonomy on him , which he published in his work Species plantarum , published in 1753 .

In 1701, Alida Withoos married the Amsterdam-based Cornelisz Andries van in Hoorn, probably ending her painting activity. Alida Withoos died in 1730 on Prinsengracht in Amsterdam and was buried in the Westerkerk .

The Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD) in The Hague owns several works signed by Alida Withoos. It is believed that some of the works signed Mathias Withoos also come from her. This was a common practice at the time, as daughters were mainly trained by their fathers and thus achieved a similar style . Some of the pictures attributed to Rachel Ruysch are also from Alida Withoos, according to the RKD.

literature

• Liesbeth Missel: De wereld van Alida Withoos (1662-1730). Botanically tekenares in de Gouden Eeuw . Dissertation, Utrecht University 2000.

Web links

Commons : Alida Withoos  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Entry in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD) (Dutch)
• Detailed description of the life and work of the Alida Withoos University Library Wageningen (netherlands)

• About her paintings with a detailed list of works
• About her drawings with a detailed list of works

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Short biography Wageningen University Library (Dutch)
2. ↑ Agnes Block and the Vijverhof University Library Wageningen (Dutch)
3. ↑ Moninckx Atlas Collection of the University Library Amsterdam (Dutch)

   13 watercolors by Alida Withoos

4. ↑ Funeral register  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Stadsarchief Amsterdam , DTB 1103, p.73-74 (Dutch)  
5. ^ Margret Schepper: Matthias Withoos, een veelzijdig talent , Nijmegen 1990
6. ↑ About the drawings by Alida Withoos Wageningen University Library (Dutch)