Augurkenplant 1898

Theo van Hoytema made this print of a gherkin plant in the Netherlands, but we're unsure of the exact date. What does it mean for this artist to focus on a gherkin? Hoytema was an artist associated with the Dutch Art Nouveau movement, where natural forms and structures inspired the motifs of the decorative arts. In other words, it was a style of art that drew on the natural world and used it to make everyday items beautiful. The gherkin, then, speaks to the democratization of beauty, finding it in the everyday and the mundane. As an art historian, I find myself wondering about the cultural and economic conditions that elevated the gherkin to this status. Is it an agricultural symbol? Is there something uniquely Dutch about it? Perhaps further investigation into the rise of Dutch Art Nouveau and its patrons would tell us more. Art does not exist in a vacuum, and neither does its meaning.