0The tulips are done here, moved on and way by the early heat.
One of the things I love about tulips is this ephemerality, this Tulip Time.
But it is exactly this here-and-gone act that they play every year that has challenged artists to capture them. They are particularly good subjects for oil paintings and watercolors.
Here are a few I’ve run into over the past year.
The 17th century saw the tulip as valuable as jewels. It is no wonder that Dutch master included them in the sumptuous still lives they painted for their wealthy clients. In this 1614 still life by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder the tulip rises triumphant above the roses, columbine and carnations it shares the bouquet with. Obviously they were not all blooming at the same time and this painting was built over time. But the exacting observation and execution in undeniably beautiful.
A decade later an unknown follower of Ambrosius Bosschaert painted this tulip in a more supine manner, like a nude, with the erotically exploring butterfly on its lip. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a butterfly on a tulip. It is usually too cold and rainy here for butterflies when the tulips are blooming, I’ve seen bumble bees tumbling in and out of the flowers though.
A hundred years later the Dutch masters were still including tulips in their still lives. In this 1722 painting by Jan van Huysum the tulip seems almost sinister against the black background, with its white petals seemingly blood tipped.
Few of the Impressionist turned their eyes to the tulip, was it already out of fashion? Displaced by sunflowers and water lilies? I know of only one painting by van Gogh of tulip fields and one by Monet that includes tulips. Recently I stumbled onto this bouquet of tulips by Cezanne, done in 1890. I am not a big fan of Cezanne, but these tulips at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena captivated me.
On that same trip to Southern California I saw the work of contemporary Vietnamese-American artist Thinh Nguyen. He painted, then cut and reassembled his canvases into all kinds of objects, even furniture. I’m not sure if he intended this piece to represent a tulip, but that is what I saw.
Not all artists who turn their eyes to tulips are masters; still the results can be quite lovely. Michael bought me this 1904 gouache painting by an unknown Norwegian artist for Christmas. Not only does it have a lovingly rendered tulip, but also carnations, my other favorite flower.
Here is a detail of the exquisite brushwork of this unknown artist.
Some artist are much more painterly.
And some need a template. I love the big blue shadows of the tulips in this paint-by-number from the 1950s.
And others only need a crayon.
This was hanging in the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington. Nothing charms me more than a child’s simple rendering of a tulip.
Sweet!
