A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Pool, Rachel van
POOL, RACHEL VAN,
Was born at Amsterdam, in 1664. Her father was the famous professor of anatomy, Ruysch; and her instructor in the art of painting was William Van Aeist, whom she soon equalled in the representation of flowers and fruit. She studied nature so closely, and imitated her so well, that she was thought almost a prodigy, and allowed to be the most able artist of her time in that line. Her choice of subjects was judicious; her manner of painting them exquisite; and she contrasted them in all her compositions with unusual beauty and delicacy; and they appeared so natural, that every plant, flower, or insect, would deceive the eye with the semblance of reality. Her reputation extended all over Europe, and she was appointed painter to the elector palatine, who, as a testimony of respect, sent her a complete set of silver for her toilette, consisting of twenty-eight pieces, and six candlesticks. He also engrossed the greater part of her works, paying for them with princely generosity. In early life she married Juria Van Pool, an eminent portrait-painter, with whom she lived very happily. She continued to paint to the last period of a long life; and her pictures, at the age of eighty, were as neatly and carefully worked as when she was thirty. Her paintings are uncommonly rare, being treasured up as curiosities in Holland and Germany. She died at Amsterdam, in 1750, at the age of eighty-six. She was as highly esteemed for her character as her talents. Her genius developed itself very early, and she had become somewhat celebrated for it before she received any instruction.