Alida Withoos
Alida Withoos (c. 1660/62 – 5 December 1730 (buried)) was a Dutch botanical artist and painter. She was the daughter of the painter Matthias Withoos.
Also recorded as A. Withoos
Alida Withoos
Alida Withoos · Collection Database of the Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public domain
- Born
- 1661 · Amersfoort.
- Died
- 1730 · Amsterdam.
- Nationality
- Dutch Republic
- Occupation
- painter · illustrator · artist
- Fields
- still life · floral
- Languages
- Dutch
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q441625 · wikipedia · Alida Withoos
In this article
Life
Life
The recorded working language is Dutch. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are still life and floral. Places of work recorded in the authority are Hoorn and Amsterdam. Work by Alida Withoos is recorded in the collections of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Führermuseum and Museum Amersfoort.
Alida Withoos was born in Amersfoort. Because of the invasion of Utrecht by the French, the family moved to Hoorn in 1672. In 1701, Alida married the Fijnschilder Andries Cornelisz van Dalen, a typical example of relations between artistic and painterly families in seventeenth and eighteenth century Holland.
Education
Education
During her lifetime, women were excluded from universities and guilds. However, daughters from artistic families could be trained to work in the studio of their father, uncle, brother or spouse, often under his name. Along with her siblings, Johannes, Pieter, Frans, and Maria, she was trained by her father in painting still lifes and botanical illustrations. Unlike her husband, brothers and sister, Alida acquired a certain reputation painting under her own name, principally due to her botanical images. In Hoorn a number of the Withoos children were active as artists of flowers, birds, butterflies and insects. In inventories, such images were regularly called "Withoosjes".
Career
Career
Alida was – with her brother Pieter – one of the many artists commissioned by Agnes Block to paint specimens at her estate called Vijverhof. Withoos painted these specimens during various stages of life by observing them in person, which she was able to achieve due to her residency at Block's estate. Although it is considered lost, one of her notable works was made during this residency; in 1687, she painted the first pineapple bred in Europe, which was grown in Block's hot house in her garden. The hortus medicus in Amsterdam, modernly named Hortus Botanicus (where plants brought back in the ships of the Dutch East India Company were grown) commissioned paintings of plants for the Moninckx Atlas. Out of the 420 water colours created for the atlas, thirteen were painted by Alida in 1694. She was paid 4 guilders per painting, the same rate as her male/female colleagues. Published in 1718, Arnold Houbraken's book, The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters and Paintresses, is a compilation of biographies of well-known 17th Century Dutch artists. Twenty-four women were named in it, including Alida, giving us a sense of her popularity during her lifetime. The Library of Wageningen University owns a book of drawings bought by the collector Simon Schijnvoet that includes 7 by Alida Withoos, perhaps made for Block.
Style
Style
Both Matthias and Alida took inspiration from the "sottobosco" (forest floor still life) which Otto Marseus van Schrieck (c.1619-78) brought to the Netherlands. Like Van Schrieck's work, their compositions combine art and science, including plants, wildlife and vegetation. In many of Alida's illustrations, there is a notable "S-curve". This is a clear stylistic decision since the plants themselves do not have this attribute.
Death
Death
She was buried in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam.
Identity
Identity
Alida Withoos is recorded as painter, illustrator and artist. Recognition and collections.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1661
Alida Withoos born at Amersfoort.
1730
Alida Withoos died at Amsterdam.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Amersfoort.
Birth place
Amsterdam.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- Johanna Helena Herolt, Alida Withoos, and artistic exchanges, Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art / Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek Online, 2024
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2024
- Withoos, Alida, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2011
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2011
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q441625: Alida Withoos
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Alida Withoos”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Alida Withoos, revision 1370194980 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Alen, Klara, Frima Fox Hofrichter, Judith Noorman, Catherine Powell-Warren, Katie Alitzer Takata, Inez De Prekel, Elena Kanagy-Loux, Marleen Puyenbroek, and Oana Stan. Unforgettable : Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600-1750. Edited by Virginia Treanor and Frederica van Dam. [Veurne, Belgium], [Ghent, Belgium], [Washington, D.C.]: Hannibal Books ; Museum of Fine Arts Ghent ; National Museum of Women in the Arts (2025): 58
- 2.Powell-Warren, Catherine. "Johanna Helena Herolt, Alida Withoos, and artistic exchanges: conceptualizing a trading zone." In Women: Female Roles in Art and Society of the Netherlands, 1500–1950 (2025):188
- 3.Missel, Liesbeth. Withoos, Alida (c. 1661-1730). Digital Women's Lexicon of the Netherlands. 27 April 2016.
- 4.Powell-Warren, Catherine. "Johanna Helena Herolt, Alida Withoos, and artistic exchanges: conceptualizing a trading zone." In Women: Female Roles in Art and Society of the Netherlands, 1500–1950 (2025):199
- 5.Segal, Sam. Dutch and Flemish flower pieces : paintings, drawings and prints up to the nineteenth century. 25 September 2020. 978-90-04-42745-7.
- 6.Wijnands, D. O. The botany of the Commelins : a taxonomical, nomenclatural, and historical account of the plants depicted in the Moninckx Atlas and in the four books by Jan and Caspar Commelin on the plants in the Hortus Medicus Amstelodamensis, 1682-1710. CRC Press. 2000. 978-1-003-07906-4.
- 7.Missel, Liesbeth. Withoos, Alida (c. 1661-1730). Digital Women's Lexicon of the Netherlands. 27 April 2016.
- 8.Segal, Sam. Dutch and Flemish flower pieces : paintings, drawings and prints up to the nineteenth century. 25 September 2020. 978-90-04-42745-7.
- 9.Powell-Warren, Catherine. "Johanna Helena Herolt, Alida Withoos, and artistic exchanges: conceptualizing a trading zone." In Women: Female Roles in Art and Society of the Netherlands, 1500–1950 (2025):193
- 10.Kettering, Alison M. “Watercolor and Women in the Early Modern Netherlands: Between Mirror and Comb.” Woman’s Art Journal 42, no. 1 (2021): 31. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27097055 .
- 11.Powell, Catherine. Alida Withoos: Creator of beauty and of visual knowledge. Art Herstory. December 5, 2020.
- 12.Jansen, Sharon L. Alida Withoos, Botanical Illustrator.
- 13.Alen, Klara, Frima Fox Hofrichter, Judith Noorman, Catherine Powell-Warren, Katie Alitzer Takata, Inez De Prekel, Elena Kanagy-Loux, Marleen Puyenbroek, and Oana Stan. Unforgettable : Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600-1750. Edited by Virginia Treanor and Frederica van Dam. [Veurne, Belgium], [Ghent, Belgium], [Washington, D.C.]: Hannibal Books ; Museum of Fine Arts Ghent ; National Museum of Women in the Arts (2025): 20-21
- 14.Konstboeck van Simon Schynvoet : [collection of botanical illustrations]. Wageningen University & Research Image Collections.
- 15.Alen, Klara, Frima Fox Hofrichter, Judith Noorman, Catherine Powell-Warren, Katie Alitzer Takata, Inez De Prekel, Elena Kanagy-Loux, Marleen Puyenbroek, and Oana Stan. Unforgettable : Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600-1750. Edited by Virginia Treanor and Frederica van Dam. [Veurne, Belgium], [Ghent, Belgium], [Washington, D.C.]: Hannibal Books ; Museum of Fine Arts Ghent ; National Museum of Women in the Arts (2025): 58; 20-21
- 16.Powell-Warren, Catherine. "Johanna Helena Herolt, Alida Withoos, and artistic exchanges: conceptualizing a trading zone." In Women: Female Roles in Art and Society of the Netherlands, 1500–1950 (2025):188; 199; 193
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Johanna Helena Herolt, Alida Withoos, and artistic exchanges, Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art / Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek Online, 2024Crossref registry
Institutional witnessscholarly publication
Withoos, Alida, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2011Crossref registry
Institutional witnessreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q441625: Alida WithoosWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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