them to hire help to care for their children. Ruysch died in Amsterdam on 12 October 1750. After her death, despite changing attitudes about flower paintings, Ruysch has maintained a strong reputation. Works It is unknown whether Ruysch was a member of the Amsterdam Guild of Saint Luke, but early signed works by her in the 1680s show the influence of Otto Marseus van Schrieck. By 1699 she and her family had moved to The Hague, where she was offered membership in the Confrerie Pictura as their first female member. In 1701 she and her husband became members of The Hague Painter's Guild. In 1708, Ruysch was invited to work for the court in Düsseldorf and serve as court painter to Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine. She obtained a contract for works painted at home that she periodically brought to Düsseldorf. She continued working for him and his wife from 1708 until the prince's death in 1716. Art historians consider Ruysch to be one of the most talented still life artists of either sex. By the time of her death at age 86 she had produced hundreds of paintings, of which more than 250 have been documented or are attributed to her. Her dated works establish that she painted from the age of 15 until she was 83, a few years before her death. Historians are able to establish this with certainty because she included her age when signing her paintings. Style Ruysch had a very good understanding of drawing and the techniques of earlier traditions. This knowledge improved her painting abilities. Stylistically, her artwork, with its playful composition and brilliant colors, was part of the rococo movement. She paid extensive attention to all details in her work. Every petal was created painstakingly with delicate brushwork. The background of Ruysch's paintings are usually dark which was the fashion for flower painting in the second half of the 17th century. Her asymmetrical compositions with drooping flowers and wild stems created paintings that seemed to possess a great energy about them. In her early work Ruysch painted a large number of forest floor pictures that feature small animals, reptiles, butterflies, and fungi. She later adopted flower painting as her main concern and continued to paint until her death, thus continuing the 17th-century style right down to the middle of the following century. Ruysch's skill lay in the minute observation of each flower in