Artwork
Stilleven met gitaar en rozen
Stilleven met gitaar en rozen is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Margaretha Roosenboom. It dates from 1894 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Stilleven met gitaar en rozen is a still life that brings together two seemingly unrelated motifs: a guitar and roses.
Stilleven met gitaar en rozen is a still life that brings together two seemingly unrelated motifs: a guitar and roses. The pairing of musical instruments with cut flowers was a popular convention in late nineteenth-century still-life painting, where artists used such combinations to evoke themes of harmony, transience, and the senses. Roses in particular carried layered symbolic weight, traditionally associated with love, beauty, and the fleeting nature of life, while the guitar introduced an element of music and intimacy into the composition.
By uniting these objects in a single horizontal canvas, Roosenboom created a contemplative arrangement that invites reflection on the relationship between natural beauty and human artistry. The work reflects the broader still-life tradition of imbuing everyday objects with poetic meaning, transforming a guitar and a bouquet of roses into a meditation on aesthetic pleasure and ephemerality.
Technique & Style
Margaretha Roosenboom painted Stilleven met gitaar en rozen in 1888 using oil paint on canvas. The work measures 60.5 cm in height and 120.5 cm in width, a notably elongated horizontal format that shapes the composition of this still life.
The painting depicts flowers, specifically roses, alongside a guitar, combining botanical and musical elements within the still-life genre. As an oil painting on canvas, it exemplifies the traditional medium and support typical of nineteenth-century Dutch still-life painting.
History & Provenance
The painting is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, as recorded in its Wikidata entry. It is catalogued as an oil-on-canvas work measuring 60.5 by 120.5 cm, painted in 1888 by Margaretha Roosenboom.
No exhibition history is documented in the available sources.
Overview
Created in 1894, this oil painting by Dutch artist Margaretha Roosenboom presents a quiet still‑life arrangement. The work combines a wooden guitar and a vase of roses set upon a table, all rendered against a warm, golden backdrop that emphasizes the intimate domestic setting.
Context
Roosenboom worked during a period when Dutch artists were revisiting traditional still‑life subjects with renewed attention to detail and domestic themes. Her focus on everyday objects rendered with precision aligns with broader European trends toward realism in the late nineteenth century.
Artist & collection
