Alida Withoos (c. 1661/62 – 5 December 1730 (buried)) was a Dutch

botanical artist Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species, frequently in watercolor paintings. They must be scientifically accurate but often also have an artistic component and may be printed with a botanical ...

and painter. She was the daughter of the painter Matthias Withoos.

Life

Alida Withoos was born in

Amersfoort Amersfoort () is a city and municipality in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands, about 20 km from the city of Utrecht and 40 km south east of Amsterdam. As of 1 December 2021, the municipality had a population of 158,531, making it the second- ...

. With three brothers Johannes,

Pieter Pieter is a male given name, the Dutch form of Peter. The name has been one of the most common names in the Netherlands for centuries, but since the mid-twentieth century its popularity has dropped steadily, from almost 3000 per year in 1947 ...

, Frans, and her sister

Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

, she was trained by her father in painting still lifes and botanical illustrations. Because of the invasion of

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

by the French, the family moved to Hoorn in 1672. In 1701, Alida married the

Fijnschilder {{Short description, 17th-century Dutch artistic movement The Fijnschilders (literally "fine-painters"), also called the Leiden Fijnschilders ('Leidse Fijnschilders'), were Dutch Golden Age painters who, from about 1630 to 1710, strove to create as ...

Andries Cornelisz van Dalen, a typical example of relations between artistic and painterly families in seventeenth and eighteenth century Holland. A training in painting was expensive and not often given to daughters, but talented daughters could be trained to work in the studio of their father, uncle, brother or spouse, often under his name. Unlike her husband, brothers and sister, Alida acquired a certain reputation painting under her own name, principally due to her botanical images. In Hoorn a number of the Withoos children were active as artists of flowers, birds, butterflies and insects. In inventories, such images were regularly called "Withoosjes". Alida was – with her brother Pieter – one of the many artists who painted plants on the country house place Vijverhof in the service of Agnes Block. She painted in 1687 (at Agnes Block's) the first

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuri ...

bred in Europe, though these images have unfortunately not survived. Thirteen water colours that Alida made in 1694 for the coloured Moninckx Atlas, along with 425 images of plants in the Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam (where plants brought back in the ships of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

were grown in neat rows as at Block's house), have survived. The Library of

Wageningen University Wageningen University & Research (also known as Wageningen UR; abbreviation: WUR) is a public university in Wageningen, Netherlands, specializing in life sciences with a focus on agriculture, technical and engineering subjects. It is a globally ...

own a book of drawings bought by the collector Simon Schijnvoet that includes 7 by Alida Withoos, perhaps made for Block. These give a good idea of the high quality of her work. She was buried in the Western Church in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

References

External links

Biography in Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon

* ttp://library.wur.nl/desktop/tulp/konstboeck/ Konstboeck {{DEFAULTSORT:Withoos, Alida 1660s births 1730 deaths Dutch Golden Age painters People from Amersfoort Dutch women painters Flower artists 17th-century Dutch women artists