Rachel Ruysch was born in 1664 in The Hague. Ruysch's father was a renowned anatomist who, in 1666, took up a professorship in Amsterdam. He had a celebrated collection of rarities there, and published extensively about it. Ruysch's mother was a daughter of the architect Pieter Post (who built Huis ten Bosch, the residence of the present Queen of the Netherlands). In 1679, Ruysch became a pupil of Willem van Aelst. In 1693, she married the portrait painter Juriaen Pool (1666-174 5), a union that was blessed with ten children. In 1701, the couple moved to The Hague, where they joined the guild. In 1708, Juriaen and Rachel were appointed court painters of the Elector Palatine Johann Willem in Düsseldorf, who, until his death in 1716, purchase...