A.C. Van Eeden

 

Published between 1871-2 by the editor, publisher and florist A. C. Van Eeden after drawings by several Dutch still life artists but predominately Arentina Hendrica Arendsen, An Album of Dutch Bulbs and Flowers was a great success in its day and universally acclaimed.Little is known of Arendsen other than she had instruction under the landscape painter Cornelis Lieste but that she was a master of botanical illustration is unquestionable.

 

What lifted Van Eeden's album out of the ordinary then as it does now, was the careful scientific observation coupled with a genuine delight in flower; every flower’s structure is meticulously drawn, every nuance of colour recreated, every detail carefully measured and transcribed with romantic clarity.

 

The vivid richness of the flowers achieved by the Belgian lithography masters G. Severeyns & Co., was done via different lithography stones for each hue with as many as twelve separate stones being used to create a single image. If art is a labour of love, and if true art strives towards nature, then Van Eeden's arresting flowers are studies in perfection.