Herman Saftleven Rotterdam 1609 - 1685 Utrecht

Janet and John E. Marqusee Collection, no. 565 (according to label on reverse of frame)

A number of decorative, colored botanical drawings by Saftleven survive, dating from the period at the end of his life, when the cultivation and collecting of flowers and plants reached new heights of popularity.  A central figure in the rise of this fashion was Agneta Block (1629-1704) who began, shortly after she bought her country house of Vijverhof on the river Vecht, to amass a collection of rare and interesting plants and to commission artists to make drawings of them. She usually annotated the drawings on the reverse with details of their scientific classification. Several examples by Saftleven are known, dated from 1680 on.  Many are larger than the present example, measuring circa 350 by 250mm, but others similar in style and measurements to the present example are also thought to have come from Agneta Block, including another from the Marqusee collection also dated 1680, sold London, Sotheby's, 13 December 1973, lot 155. For information and a catalogue of the Saftleven botanical drawings, see W. Schulz, Herman Saftleven, Berlin 1982, p.481ff.