Jacob van Huysum (c.1687 Amsterdam - 1740), was a Dutch botanical artist. Both his father Justus van Huysum (1659-1716), and his brother Jan van Huysum (1682-1749), were celebrated flower painters. Jacob's manner of painting was very like that of his brother. His approach to botanical illustration, while preserving botanical accuracy, captured a more painterly aspect of his subject. This contrasts with the meticulously exact mode of Georg Dionysius Ehret, his contemporary colleague.

Jacob arrived in England in about 1721, and for a while lived in the house of his patron, Mr. Lockyear of South Sea House. Later he enjoyed the patronage of Sir Robert Walpole, who befriended him, and commissioned him to pain...