This delicate 18th-century botanical gouache by Dorothea Kreps was recently sold from The Weyde Collection to a private collector in Leiden.
Very little is known about Kreps, which makes her surviving works exceptionally rare. She was connected to the botanical world surrounding the Amsterdam Hortus and is believed to have worked in close proximity to exotic plant collections during the Dutch Enlightenment. Her work is associated with the refined tradition of Dutch scientific and botanical illustration that flourished in the eighteenth century.
Only a handful of works by Kreps are known today, placing her among the more elusive female artists of the period. The present composition — with its elegant flowering cactus, subtle colouring, and highly detailed execution — beautifully captures the combination of scientific observation and artistic refinement characteristic of elite botanical art of the era.
Works by Dorothea Kreps rarely appear on the market, making this an especially fascinating rediscovery.
