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Narrow-leaved Lupin (Lupinus angustifolius)
Alida Withoos, c. 1680 - before c. 1700
- Artwork typedrawing, aquarel
- Object numberRP-T-1948-115
- Dimensionsheight 383 mm x width 250 mm
- Physical characteristicswatercolour, over traces of graphite
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Identification
Title(s)
Narrow-leaved Lupin (Lupinus angustifolius)
Object type
Object number
RP-T-1948-115
Part of catalogue
Creation
Creation
draughtsman: Alida Withoos
Dating
c. 1680 - before c. 1700
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Material and technique
Physical description
watercolour, over traces of graphite
Dimensions
height 383 mm x width 250 mm
This work is about
Subject
Acquisition and rights
Acquisition
purchase 1948-03-30
Copyright
Provenance
…; sale, Dr Ernst Heinrich Krelage (1869-1956, Haarlem), Amsterdam (M. Hertzberger), 30 March 1948, no. 335, with inv. nos. RP-T-1948-114 and RP-T-1948-116, fl. 38 for all, to the museum (L. 2228), 1948
Remarks
Please note that this provenance was formulated with a special focus on provenance research for the years 1933-45 and could therefore be incomplete. There may be more (mostly earlier) provenance information known in the museum. In case this item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45, the Rijksmuseum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
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Alida Withoos
Narrow-leaved Lupin (Lupinus angustifolius)
c. 1680 - before c. 1700
Inscriptions
signed: lower right, in brown ink, Alida Withoos
stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
watermark: Strasbourg lily
Condition
Some brown spots throughout the sheet
Provenance
…; sale, Dr Ernst Heinrich Krelage (1869-1956, Haarlem), Amsterdam (M. Hertzberger), 30 March 1948, no. 335, with inv. nos. RP-T-1948-114 and RP-T-1948-116, fl. 38 for all, to the museum (L. 2228), 1948
Object number: RP-T-1948-115
The artist
Biography
Alida Withoos (Amersfoort c. 1661 - Amsterdam 1730)
She was the daughter of the Amersfoort painter Matthias Withoos (1627-1703) and Wendelina van Hoorn (1618-c. 1680). Alida and several of her siblings were trained by their father.1Alida had seven siblings, four of them became artists: Pieter (1654/1655-1692), Johannes (?-?), Maria (1663-1699/1710) and Frans (1665-1705); cf. M.W. Heijenga-Klomp, ‘Matthias Withoos (ca. 1627-1703) en zijn kinderen. Een Amersfoortse schildersfamilie’, Flehite, Historisch Jaarboek voor Amersfoort en omstreken (2005), pp. 124-31. In 1672, when the French threatened to siege Amersfoort, the family moved to Hoorn.
According to Arnold Houbraken, whom Alida knew personally,2Alida was Houbraken’s source for the biography of her father; cf. M. Russell, ‘The Women Painters in Houbraken's Groote Schouburgh’, Woman's Art Journal, 2 (1981), no. 1, pp. 7-11. she drew flowers, fruit and small animals in oils and watercolours.3L. Missel inventoried fifty-nine sheets; cf. https://library.wur.nl/speccol/Alida/Alida_Main/varia.htm#tekeningen, accessed 1 July 2020. She also made still life and landscape paintings in the style of her father, which she often signed with her full name.4L. Missel, De wereld van Alida Withoos (1662-1730). Botanisch tekenares in de Gouden Eeuw, https://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/wurpubs/fulltext/333155, accessed 1 July 2020.
Withoos moved within a network of prominent (flower) painters and collectors. In 1687, horticulturist and art collector Agnes Block (1629-1704) invited her to draw and paint the flowers in her garden at her estate ‘Vijverhof’ in Loenen aan de Vecht, near Utrecht. Alida also drew the Block’s famous homegrown pineapple – the first in Europe – which Block had cultivated in her one of her hothouses. The drawings made by Withoos at Vijverhof apparently did not survive.5The Rijksmuseum holds one Album of Flowers containing unsigned drawings of several masters (inv. no. RP-T-1948-119); it is quite likely that some of these drawings were made by Alida. Withoos made twelve drawings of plants in the Amsterdam Hortus Medicus for the Moninckx Atlas (1686-1706), which is now preserved in the University of Amsterdam (inv. no. Hs. VI G 1-9), and contributed six sheets to the Konstboeck (c. 1690-1750) of Simon Schijnvoet (1653-1727), now kept at the Special Collections in the Library of Wageningen University.
In 1701, at age thirty-nine, Alida married painter Andries Cornelisz van Dalen (1672-?).6They posted their marriage banns in both Hoorn and Amsterdam; cf. L. Missel, ‘Withoos, Alida’, Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland, http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/WithoosAlida, accessed 20 March 2020. The couple lived in the Anjeliersstraat in Amsterdam. It is quite likely that she stopped painting after her marriage: there are no dated works known after 1700, nor is she mentioned in records related to commissions. Alternatively, she might have assisted her husband in his workshop. Alida was buried on 5 December 1730 in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam.7Ibid.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), p. 188; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXXVI (1947), pp. 116-17 (as W[ithoos]s Tochter Alida); E. Kloek et al., ‘Lexicon van Noord-Nederlandse kunstenaressen, circa 1550-1800’, in E. Kloek et al., Vrouwen en kunst in de Republiek. Een overzicht, Hilversum 1998, p. 174; K. Van der Stighelen and M. Westen, Elck zijn waerom. Vrouwelijke kunstenaars in België en Nederland, 1500-1950, Ghent 1999, p. 196; A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 221; M.W. Heijenga-Klomp, ‘Matthias Withoos (ca. 1627-1703) en zijn kinderen. Een Amersfoortse schildersfamilie’, Flehite, Historisch Jaarboek voor Amersfoort en omstreken (2005), pp. 129-30; L. Missel, ‘Withoos, Alida’, Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland, http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/WithoosAlida
Entry
This white and pink Lupinus angustifolius (narrow-leaved lupin) is native to Europe, Asia and North Africa. It has been cultivated for over 6000 years due to its edible legume seeds and suitability as a food source for livestock.
The present sheet and inv. nos. RP-T-1948-114 and RP-T-1948-116 were bought at the 1948 sale of Ernst Heinrich Krelage (1869-1956). The Krelage family ran an internationally renowned business in Haarlem, Krelage Nursery, which specialized in the cultivation of flower bulbs, lilies and dahlias. The family also had a large collection of horticultural books and related artworks.8A collection of 1300 books was donated to Wageningen University in 1916, but the rarest and oldest holdings from the Krelage library were auctioned. The Rijksmuseum’s collection includes a Tulpenboek by Jacob Marrel (1614-1681), which contains the ex-libris of Krelage on the first page (inv.no. RP-T-1950-266); it is unknown, however, whether this book was bought at the same auction. See ‘The Krelage Collection’, https://www.wur.nl/en/Library/Special-Collections/Books-journals/Krelage-collection.htm, accessed 2 July 2020. Compared to inv. no. RP-T-1948-114, the present sheet is less refined. Although Withoos added subtle colour nuances in the flowers, the two tones of green (light and dark) in the leaves and stems are sharply delineated and, as a result, the leaves look flatter and more graphic.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
Citation
C. Mensing, 2020, 'Alida Withoos, Narrow-leaved Lupin (Lupinus angustifolius), c. 1680 - before c. 1700', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200145620
(accessed 6 December 2025 23:53:47).Footnotes
- 1Alida had seven siblings, four of them became artists: Pieter (1654/1655-1692), Johannes (?-?), Maria (1663-1699/1710) and Frans (1665-1705); cf. M.W. Heijenga-Klomp, ‘Matthias Withoos (ca. 1627-1703) en zijn kinderen. Een Amersfoortse schildersfamilie’, Flehite, Historisch Jaarboek voor Amersfoort en omstreken (2005), pp. 124-31.
- 2Alida was Houbraken’s source for the biography of her father; cf. M. Russell, ‘The Women Painters in Houbraken's Groote Schouburgh’, Woman's Art Journal, 2 (1981), no. 1, pp. 7-11.
- 3L. Missel inventoried fifty-nine sheets; cf. https://library.wur.nl/speccol/Alida/AlidaMain/varia.htm#tekeningen, accessed 1 July 2020.
- 4L. Missel, De wereld van Alida Withoos (1662-1730). Botanisch tekenares in de Gouden Eeuw, https://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/wurpubs/fulltext/333155, accessed 1 July 2020.
- 5The Rijksmuseum holds one Album of Flowers containing unsigned drawings of several masters (inv. no. RP-T-1948-119); it is quite likely that some of these drawings were made by Alida.
- 6They posted their marriage banns in both Hoorn and Amsterdam; cf. L. Missel, ‘Withoos, Alida’, Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland, http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/WithoosAlida, accessed 20 March 2020.
- 7Ibid.
- 8A collection of 1300 books was donated to Wageningen University in 1916, but the rarest and oldest holdings from the Krelage library were auctioned. The Rijksmuseum’s collection includes a Tulpenboek by Jacob Marrel (1614-1681), which contains the ex-libris of Krelage on the first page (inv.no. RP-T-1950-266); it is unknown, however, whether this book was bought at the same auction. See ‘The Krelage Collection’, https://www.wur.nl/en/Library/Special-Collections/Books-journals/Krelage-collection.htm, accessed 2 July 2020.