Carrots portrayed in fine art in the 17th century (original) (raw)
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For the Netherlands, the seventeenth century was a period of remarkable prosperity and artistic output� a true Golden Age. Amongst the many genres of paintings of this time the Vegetable (and in particular the carrot) was one consistent image. The image usually appears in a vegetable market or street scene which serves as a lesson on Dutch economic and social identity.
The vegetables in paintings of this period may indicate Dutch national and local pride in horticultural innovation: intense cultivation and seasonal crop rotation had teased maximum production from the country�s sparse land. The development of new crops such as the Hoorn carrot named after the town of Hoorn near Amsterdam, brought the Dutch international recognition through global seed trade.Source - Catalogue - Paintings in the Golden Age - A Profile of the seventeenth century, Washington Gallery of Fine Art
Horensche wortelen (carrots of Hoorn) were common on the Amsterdam market in 1610. The earliest English seedsmen list Early Horn and Long Orange, and both were probably the first varieties of carrot imported into the United States. (Source - United States. Department of Agriculture. Descriptions of Types of Principal American Varieties of Orange-fleshed Carrots. By Roy Magruder. Vol. 361. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, 1940. Print. full copy here )
The Hoorn carrot was cultivated around 1620 for its smooth taste, deep orange colour, and ability to thrive in shallow earth or in mixtures of soil and manure.
Carrots and other root vegetables, such as onions, turnips, parsnips, and beets, were prized in the first half of the seventeenth century not only because they kept over the long winter but also because they were considered plain and humble, in line with the Dutch value of moderation.
Gabriel Metsu's Vegetable Market at Amsterdam circa 1661-1662 (below) accurately rendered vegetables and shows the vegetable vendors and their goods prominently positioned in the foreground, depicted to reflect a recent Dutch horticultural innovation � including the development of the orange carrot. The market was close to where the artist lived.(Images below Vegetable Market in Amsterdam, Gabriel Metsu, 1661-2 Oil on canvas, 97 x 81,3 cm, Mus�e du Louvre, Paris)
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Examples of Carrots appearing in art in the seventeenth century.