A Bouquet of Flowers

In early modern Europe, art and science were not considered separate domains of knowledge, as evidenced in the mutual development of botanical illustration and still-life painting. Women artists were more likely to specialize in still-lives than their male counterparts, due to patriarchal restrictions on women studying human anatomy from naked models. Some women, such as Flemish artist Clara Peeters, achieved renown as still life painters. This oil painting of a bouquet of flowers demonstrates precise botanical detail. European colonial extraction of plant life from the Global South was a crucial part of the development of capitalist markets, as agriculturalists bred and monetized new cultivars. A yellow and red-striped tulip, shooting out from the upper right hand side of Peeters’ bouquet, evokes 17th century “tulip mania,” in which the Dutch imported Ottoman tulips as status goods, fuelling what is widely regarded as the first market bubble in capitalist history.