Alcea rosea (have-stokrose) 1649 - 1659

Curator: Here we have Hans Simon Holtzbecker’s botanical study, "Alcea rosea," also known as “have-stokrose,” created sometime between 1649 and 1659. Editor: They are so lovely! What catches my eye is the fragility and tenderness with which he depicts those almost ludicrously lush, almost exploding pink flowerheads. They make me think of secrets whispered in a garden at twilight. Curator: That fragility, that sense of light, owes a lot to his meticulous use of gouache and watercolor. What strikes me is Holtzbecker’s work in service to a specific botanical aim—in this case, scientific observation and documentation. I’d even suggest he was an unsung expert in the labor and materials associated with creating pigment itself during the period. Editor: That is so interesting. But what whispers to me are these two stalks that he renders so vividly—almost as if he’s caught a moment in their very fleeting lives! You can imagine that this meticulous depiction might be as much about personal wonder as scientific observation. Curator: True, these paintings also reveal the growth in consumer demand and import of artists’ supplies for northern European merchants to fulfill new, specialized markets and social needs. His patronage—he mostly worked for the elite—shows the networks these craftspeople relied on. Holtzbecker relied on the pigments themselves as much as artistic ability, relying heavily on intense processes of manufacturing and acquisition to serve that network. Editor: It makes one wonder at all of that intense labour that goes unremarked in a field dominated by “high art,” I am left contemplating these beauties that are Holtzbecker’s "Alcea rosea"—a potent reminder that true observation requires patience, reverence and sensitivity. Curator: And seeing Holtzbecker's "Alcea rosea" reminds me to focus more often on all those moments in life where, materially and metaphorically, beauty and science grow intertwined.