Object data
watercolour, over traces of graphite
height 332 mm × width 210 mm
Pieter Withoos (circle of)
White Iris (Iris albicans)
c. 1674 - c. 1695
Inscriptions
-
inscribed: lower right, in brown ink, (2
Technical notes
watermark: countermark with letters LVG
Condition
Brown and black spots throughout
Provenance
…; purchased with the support of the F.G. Waller-Fonds by the museum, 1951
Object number: RP-T-1951-331
Credit line: Purchased with the support of the F.G. Waller-Fonds
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
This sheet is possibly unfinished, since it is missing some final layers of (opaque) watercolour. Compared to autograph works by Withoos, the drawing lacks overall finesse and detailing. Therefore, it might be drawn by someone in his circle. Based on the number in brown ink preceded by a parenthesis in the lower right corner, this white iris – also known as the ‘cemetery iris’ (since often planted on graves) – might have been drawn by Pieter Withoos or his sister Alida Withoos (1659-1730). There are several sheets that bear such a number, now dispersed among public and private collections.1 In 1951, the Rijksmuseum purchased three other drawings that are similarly numbered: inv. nos. RP-T-1951-328, RP-T-1951-329 and RP-T-1951-330.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
Citation
C. Mensing, 2020, 'circle of Pieter Withoos, White Iris (Iris albicans), c. 1674 - c. 1695', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200145614
(accessed 9 December 2025 18:39:52).