Art-Ruysch-Still Life with Fruit and Insects TB

Please drop this item in rural or Premium Member Only caches.  Do not drop it in an urban cache or leave it behind at a caching event.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; this prevents the chain and tag tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take this travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission needed to leave the US.
 

This is one of a series of travel bugs made to recognize paintings seen, and admired by the bug owner. A digital copy of this painting was downloaded from the internet. The copy was reduced in size and proportions cropped to accommodate the laminating materials available to the owner. Regrettably these processes diminish the effort of the artist. One truly must see the original in person to fully appreciate the work. The text below is a mixture of my own observations and material gleaned from the internet (mostly Wikipedia and Web Gallery).

Unlike that of most 17th and 18th century female artists, Rachel Ruysch's (1664-1750) work has never sunk into obscurity.  She also enjoyed public recognition of her talent during her lifetime.  She was the first woman to be admitted to the Confrerie Pictura in The Hague, and in 1708 Johann Wilhelm, the Elector of the Palatinate, appointed her to the position of court painter. Her specialities were compositions with fruit, flowers and woodlands. Her richly devised bouquets were painted in delicate colors with meticulous detail. This almost scientific trait is certainly due, in Ruysch's case, to her father's position as a professor of botany.  Typical for this period is the adding of insects and fruit of every kind.  We saw this painting at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.
 
Ruysch lived eighty-five years and her dated works establish that she painted from the time she was a young woman until she was an octogenarian.  However, only about a hundred paintings by her are known. Although building a professional career was something unusual for a woman at that time, she was simultaneously a "normal" woman of the period in that she bore ten children.