Juffertje in 't groen 1677 - 1755

Elias van Nijmegen made this watercolor drawing of flowers, called 'Juffertje in 't groen' or 'damsel in the green', sometime between 1667 and 1755. It is a botanical study, an art form that came into its own in the Netherlands in the 17th and 18th centuries. The rise of this genre is tied to scientific developments, in particular, the growing interest in natural history and botany. Botanical studies like this one played a role in the documentation and classification of plant species at a time when the Dutch were bringing back samples from all over the world through the Dutch East India Company. This simple drawing gives us insight into the way scientific pursuits and artistic expression were intertwined in the Dutch Golden Age. To understand this moment better, one might look at herbals and scientific treatises of the period, tracing the way botanical knowledge was gathered and shared. In so doing, we can appreciate how art was tied to larger networks of knowledge production.