Forever Flowers – Mastery and Meaning of Flower Paintings in the Low Countries (1600-1700) €60
If flowers could talk…
In Forever Flowers, conservator Sven Van Dorst offers a different perspective on a vibrant genre, the seventeenth-century Flemish flower still life. His detailed exploration of eight magnificent pictures in the collection of The Phoebus Foundation is a search for the secrets that lie beneath the brushstrokes of Jan Brueghel I, Daniel Seghers, Jan Davidsz. De Heem, and their fellow flower painters.
With the latest in modern analysis and imaging technologies as well as reconstructions of historical techniques he penetrates the deepest layers of their works, bringing to light features not seen for nearly four hundred years. For hidden behind the apparent simplicity of a flower piece are coded meanings and astonishing painting processes.
The wealth of razor-sharp detail images in this richly illustrated book reveals many surprising inventions and discoveries about exotic flowers, butterfly wings, and… a llama. Each flower still life tells a story. Of perilous journeys, status and prestige, fear of death, love for a child, or our search for knowledge in a world that is ever-changing even as we try to hold on to it.
For flowers do talk, and through these pages you can hear them.
Published to accompany the exhibition Garden of Delights. The Seventeenth Century in Bloom, now on view at Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden from 26 September 2026 to 29 March 2027, following an earlier presentation at Kadriorg Art Museum in Tallinn.
