Still Life with Fruit, Bird's Nest and Insects

Rachel Ruysch (Amsterdam 1664 – Amsterdam 1750). Oil painting on canvas, Still Life with Fruit, Bird's Nest and Insects by Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), signed top left on plinth: Rachel Ruysch 1710/16 (?). [Signed top left on plinth: Rachel Ruysch 1710] This would accord with the date on the closest parallel cited by Marianne Berardi in her letter of 12 August 1996, in which, however, she said that the more elaborate chiaroscuro inclined her to put a later date, of c.1716-20 on the Dudmaston picture. Having studied the photograph of it very carefully, however, she read the date as 1730, which would make it “the latest known outdoor fruit piece in Ruysch’s oeuvre”, and only the second dated painting by her from the 1730s (letter of 24 September 1996)]. Various fruits and flowers arranged on the floor, a stone plinth and tree trunk in the background. Numerous insects, a bird's nest to the right, a lizard eats one of the eggs. Dudmaston, Shropshire (Accredited Museum)