Object data
watercolour, with opaque watercolour, over traces of graphite
height 318 mm × width 197 mm
Alida Withoos (attributed to)
Black Mustard (Brassica nigra)
Inscriptions
-
inscribed, in pencil: upper right, 29; lower left, Brassica; lower right, B-18
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inscribed on verso: lower left, in pencil, 2026
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stamped on verso: lower left corner, with the mark of Clermont Witt (L. 646a)
Technical notes
watermark: unicorn in circle (?)
Condition
Heavy foxing throughout
Provenance
…; collection John Clermont Witt (1907-82), London (L. 646a); …; collection Sam Segal (1933-2018), Amsterdam; by whom donated to the museum, 2013
Object number: RP-T-2013-58-34
Credit line: Gift of S. Segal, Amsterdam
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Alida Withoos (Amersfoort c. 1661 - Amsterdam 1730)
She was the daughter of the Amersfoort painter Matthias Withoos (1627-1703) and Wendelina van Hoorn (1618-c. 1680). Alida and several of her siblings were trained by their father.1 In 1672, when the French threatened to siege Amersfoort, the family moved to Hoorn.
According to Arnold Houbraken, whom Alida knew personally,2 she drew flowers, fruit and small animals in oils and watercolours.3 She also made still life and landscape paintings in the style of her father, which she often signed with her full name.4
Withoos moved within a network of prominent (flower) painters and collectors. In 1687, horticulturist and art collector Agnes Block (1629-1704) invited her to draw and paint the flowers in her garden at her estate ‘Vijverhof’ in Loenen aan de Vecht, near Utrecht. Alida also drew the Block’s famous homegrown pineapple – the first in Europe – which Block had cultivated in her one of her hothouses. The drawings made by Withoos at Vijverhof apparently did not survive.5 Withoos made twelve drawings of plants in the Amsterdam Hortus Medicus for the Moninckx Atlas (1686-1706), which is now preserved in the University of Amsterdam (inv. no. Hs. VI G 1-9), and contributed six sheets to the Konstboeck (c. 1690-1750) of Simon Schijnvoet (1653-1727), now kept at the Special Collections in the Library of Wageningen University.
In 1701, at age thirty-nine, Alida married painter Andries Cornelisz van Dalen (1672-?).6 The couple lived in the Anjeliersstraat in Amsterdam. It is quite likely that she stopped painting after her marriage: there are no dated works known after 1700, nor is she mentioned in records related to commissions. Alternatively, she might have assisted her husband in his workshop. Alida was buried on 5 December 1730 in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam.7
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), p. 188; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXXVI (1947), pp. 116-17 (as W[ithoos]s Tochter Alida); E. Kloek et al., ‘Lexicon van Noord-Nederlandse kunstenaressen, circa 1550-1800’, in E. Kloek et al., Vrouwen en kunst in de Republiek. Een overzicht, Hilversum 1998, p. 174; K. Van der Stighelen and M. Westen, Elck zijn waerom. Vrouwelijke kunstenaars in België en Nederland, 1500-1950, Ghent 1999, p. 196; A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 221; M.W. Heijenga-Klomp, ‘Matthias Withoos (ca. 1627-1703) en zijn kinderen. Een Amersfoortse schildersfamilie’, Flehite, Historisch Jaarboek voor Amersfoort en omstreken (2005), pp. 129-30; L. Missel, ‘Withoos, Alida’, Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland, http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/WithoosAlida
Entry
As a previous collector already noted on the lower left corner of the recto, this plant is of the genus Brassica, a group of agricultural and horticultural crops that includes cabbages, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower and canola, commonly used as a food source and cultivated throughout the world. Upon close inspection, the frilly shape of the leaf is most like mustard seed (Brassica nigra), the base for the condiment mustard and a spice staple in various international cuisines.
The condition of the sheet is poor due to heavy foxing. The plant is rendered with a considerable level of detail, using various shades of green and small streaks of purple to enhance the three-dimensional quality of the leaves. The artist also applied small dobs of white paint for the highlights in the yellow flowers. The technique is somewhat comparable to that used in an autograph drawing by Alida Withoos, Nandina (inv. no. RP-T-1948-114). However, the present drawing was made with extensive amounts of opaque watercolour, whereas in the former sheet only small amounts were used. That being said, in another autograph drawing, depicting a stalk of bear’s breeches (Acanthus mollis), in the Konstboeck of Simon Schijnvoet (1653-1727), preserved in the Special Collections in the Library of Wageningen University, more opaque watercolour is found.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
Citation
C. Mensing, 2020, 'attributed to Alida Withoos, Black Mustard (Brassica nigra)', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200687896
(accessed 11 December 2025 12:55:57).