BIOGRAPHY SPOTLIGHT: RACHEL RUYSCH WRITTEN BY MITZURA SALGIAN

HISTORICAL WOMEN ARTISTS PROFILED BY WOMEN IN ART

"Bouquet of Flowers"By Rachel Ruysch c1680's, Oil,  Collection of The National Museum of Art, Bucharest, Romania

Born July 3, 1664, in the Hague, to a highly scientific and artistic family, Rachel Ruysch was trained as a botanical artist in her beginnings, then she was apprenticed to Willem van Aelst in Amsterdam, until his death. Ruysch became a successful artist very early and produced a big number of masterpieces in the unique style that she developed, commissioned by international admirers. From 1708 to to 1816, she worked as a court artists in Dusseldorf, to Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine. 
Ruysch's flowers are arranged in informal, spontaneous compositions, elaborate beyond what could ever be achieved in nature. Preoccupied with the subtlety of the colors and the extreme realism of the details, exuding a mysterious air of darkness and light, the public instantly identifies with their exquisite freshness and beauty. 
An accomplished artist, Ruysch was also an accomplished mother to her ten children, taking great pride in their upbringing. 
Rachel Ruysch died in 1750, on October 12, in Amsterdam, while her paintings continue to our time to amaze and enchant.

While a student at the Fine art Art Institute of Bucharest, (my native city), Romania, 
we received an extensive assignment about the Old Dutch Masters painting technique. The learning in theory was to be applied in practice by copying a painting of the period, on site at the National Museum of Art. I went there to choose a painting for my assignment, rather thinking of a village scene by one of the Bruegels as a good possibility. But when I entered that room at the museum, my eye was immediately caught by a big floral painting at the other end. I rushed to it, as I had never before seen such a wonderful painting! Flowers hidden in the darkness of a niche, winding dynamically, a mysterious light hitting a few of them at center stage - and everything painted with a breath-taking realist smoothness allowing the eye to glide freely in any direction on the surface of that wonder! And then,...the name of the artist: Rachel Ruysch, a WOMAN! My admiration ran instantly even deeper, making the Ruysch phenomenon a milestone in my life as a young artist.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO GO SEE RACHEL RUYSCH'S WORK IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS


Mitzura states " I define my art as Poetic Realism. While fascinated with a multitude of aspects of our lives, from the human figure to the bare abstraction of a mineral formation, I combine my subjects in a new, unique, poetic conjecture. I identified with the Surrealist movement since my early teens and to the present time, with its philosophy, its ludic and oneiric tools of aesthetic exploration, and the assiduous search for the marvelous."

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO GO TO MITZURA SALGIAN'S WEBSITE: www.mitzura.com

"Flora Lineata Atalaria" by Mitzura Salgian 30 x 36 in, Oil