Tulip – anonymous, c. 1850

Broken red and white tulip, watercolour made around 1850 by an anonymous artist. Size. (paper): 28 x 21 cm.

Through the centuries, it is especially the flamed (‘broken’) tulip, in hundreds of varieties, that we see in paintings, prints, and drawings. Tulips represent, on the one hand, the beauty of things and the pleasures of life, but on the other hand, also their transience: vanitas (vanity) and memento mori (remember that you will die). This fleeting nature is nicely depicted here by the almost fallen petal.

Price: Euro 950,-