Artists of antiquity began to depict flowers from the time of ancient Egypt. Among the images inside the Egyptian pyramids even today you can see lotuses drawn many thousands of years ago. In ancient times, the inhabitants of Egypt considered the lotus a sacred plant with a mysterious energy, and the inhalation of its fragrance was depicted in the interiors of temples and tombs.

But still life appeared as a separate trend of pictorial art much later – in the 17th century in Holland. Tendency of the population of these lands to gardening and flower growing influenced it. In the paintings of flowers by Dutch artists of that time all kinds of vegetation blooms in lush colors: delicate tulips and noble roses, spring lilies of the valley and modest forget-me-not. Lilies and violets, irises and carnations, daisies and mallows bloom in the rays of sunshine.

The passion of the inhabitants of this country for gardening and cultivation of flowers is reflected in the art. In Dutch paintings of that era, roses and tulips bloomed, lilies and mallows reached for the sun, and forget-me-nots, carnations, lilies, forget-me-nots, daisies, violets and irises.

Artists sought sophistication and singularity, so in their oil paintings on canvas painted flowers that bloom in different seasons. It sometimes took several months to capture them from life.

For this reason, only wealthy art lovers could afford to purchase floral still lifes.

The Flemish painter Jan Bruegel the Elder, who created his works in the second half of the 16th and early 17th centuries, found his sources of creativity in the King’s greenhouses in Brussels. He created his paintings of flowers from life. Often the artist would patiently spend many months waiting for the flowering of the plant he wanted to capture.

In the first half of the 17th century, Jan Baptist van Fornenburg created his floral works in the Netherlands. He gave the pictures an allegorical meaning, seeking to show the transience of life, depicting plucked and fading flowers. The master was not limited to flora: in addition to roses, daffodils and tulips, he introduced animals, insects and birds to the subjects of his works.

He was not alone in this: the Dutch master Jacob Wouters Vosmar, who worked in the same era, painted stecoses, bees and butterflies in his paintings of flowers.

Let us remember other painters who painted floral still lifes, which became the heritage of the world’s painting due to their high artistic merits. Among them is the 17th century Dutch painter Abraham Mignon and his compatriot of the next century, Jan van Heusum. Less is known about the seventeenth-century master Adrien Corte, who painted paintings of flowers in a minimalist manner. These artists raised the genre of floral painting to an unattainable height.