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A sprig of flowering rosemary lying against an ivory-white background and the twelve insects that surround it fills this horizontal painting. Stretching nearly the length of the composition with the cut end to our left, the rosemary has blunted, needle-like, gently curling teal-green leaves and small periwinkle-blue flowers along the ash-brown stem. Several insects perch on the sprig while others are seen as if looking from overhead, resting on the white background. The three largest insects perch along the top of the sprig, with an ivory-white butterfly with moss-green and black markings to the left, a black and golden, fuzzy bumblebee near the center, and a lemon-yellow butterfly with red antennae to our right. A tiny red insect, perhaps a ladybug without spots, sits on a leaf between the bee and yellow butterfly, and a small wasp-like insect rests on a leaf in at the lower left. Another mosquito-like insect alights on the surface nearby, next to a beetle with a honey-orange body with black, almost tiger-like stripes. A large cockroach sitting near the lower right corner has six spindly legs, a mahogany-colored abdomen, a black thorax, and tiny, black head. Spaced somewhat evenly across the top of the panel are a brick-red, winged insect to the left, a mint-green, beetle-like bug near a moth patterned with bone white and black, and a black, fly-like insect to our right. Lit from the upper left, the rosemary and insects cast shadows on the surface. The artist signed and dated the work with gray in the lower left corner: “J v. kessel . . f. Ao 1653.”
Jan van Kessel the Elder, Insects and a Sprig of Rosemary, 1653, oil on copper, The Richard C. Von Hess Foundation, Nell and Robert Weidenhammer Fund, Barry D. Friedman, and Friends of Dutch Art, 2018.41.1
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Joris Hoefnagel, Plate 53: Southern Hawker Dragonfly, c.1575/1590s, watercolor and gold paint on parchment, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1987.20.5.54
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Jacopo Ligozzi, A Groundhog or Marmot with a Branch of Plums, 1605, watercolor and ink with white gouache over traces of graphite on burnished laid paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Purchased as the Gift of Helen Porter and James T. Dyke, 2007.111.121
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Jacob Hoefnagel, Joris Hoefnagel, Archetypa studiaque patris Georgii Hoefnagelii [Part 1, Plate 1], published 1592, engraving on laid paper, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1987.20.9.2
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Joris Hoefnagel, Plate 17: Old World Porcupine (Hystrix) and Wild Pig, c.1575/1590s, watercolor and gold paint on parchment, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1987.20.6.18
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Clara Peeters, Still Life with Flowers Surrounded by Insects and a Snail, c. 1610, oil on copper, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, 2018.144.1
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Adriaen Collaert, Hoopoe and Owl, c. 1600, engraving on laid paper, Gift of The Circle of the National Gallery of Art, 1993.32.1.f
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Wenceslaus Hollar, Shell (Murex brandaris), c. 1645, etching on laid paper, Gift of Edward William Carter and Hannah Locke Carter, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1992.17.2
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Teodoro Filippo di Liagno, Skeleton of a Heron, 1620-1621, etching on laid paper, Gift of Funds from Virginia Mars, 2023.5.14
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Joris Hoefnagel, Plate 66: Lackey Moth Caterpillar, Figure of Eight Caterpillar, Grey Dagger Caterpillar, and Other Caterpillars, c.1575/1590s, watercolor and gold paint on parchment, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1987.20.6.67
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Wenceslaus Hollar, Two Butterflies, a Wasp, and a Moth, 1646, etching on laid paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.4945
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Joris Hoefnagel, Plate 51: Two Sand Lizards, a Common Parsley Frog(?), and a Caterpillar, c.1575/1590s, watercolor and gold paint on parchment, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1987.20.6.52
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Jacob Hoefnagel, Joris Hoefnagel, Archetypa studiaque patris Georgii Hoefnagelii [Part 1, Plate 5], 1592, engraving on laid paper, Gift of Ellen von Seggern Richter and Jan Paul Richter, 2023.45.1
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