Pieter Holsteyn II

In the second half of the sixteenth century, a widespread interest in procuring, cultivating, and illustrating foreign plants emerged in Holland. By the late 1630s, this interest developed into a full-fledged "tulip mania" that carried over to other extremely popular and expensive imports, including the iris, daffodil, and hyacinth. Botanicals from this period were often illustrations for sales catalogues, records of private gardens and bulb collections, or preliminary sketches for flower paintings. This drawing was originally bound into a flower book (Latin, florilegium), together with other works by the artist. According to convention, it depicts three different species of the hyacinth, with the pre-18th century classification inscribed in Dutch beneath each plant. In order to confirm the authorship of this work, the research team compared the style, media, and dimensions of other drawings attributed to Pieter Holsteyn the Younger. Not only was the attribution confirmed, but it was discovered that, due to unique similarities, it is possible that several iris drawings sold at auction were collected into a single album with this drawing. Since Holsteyn's work is largely undated and without historical documentaion, one cannot positively determine the specific album within which the drawing was originally bound.