Agnes Block

Dutch botanist and art collector (1629–1704)

Agnes, or Agneta Block (29 October 1629, Emmerich am Rhein – 20 April 1704, Amsterdam) was a Dutch art collector and horticulturalist. She is most remembered as the compiler of an album of flower and insect paintings and as one of the first Europeans to successfully cultivate and fruit the pineapple outside of its native habitat.^[1] She bore the nickname "Flora Batava," referencing the goddess of flowers and her Dutch identity. She is often lost to history because of the misspelling of her name.^[2] As well as differences in her first name, her last name was also spelled interchangeably as Block or Blok.

Life

Agneta Block was the daughter of a successful Mennonite textile merchant. She became an orphan sometime after her youngest sister was born (1632). Block and her siblings then moved in with David Rutgers (1601-1668), her maternal uncle and Susanna de Flines (1607-1677), his wife.^[3] She first married Hans de Wolff (1613–1670), a silk merchant, in Amsterdam in 1649, and after he died, in 1674 she remarried in Amsterdam to Sijbrand de Flines (1623–1697). In Amsterdam, she lived on the Herengracht close to Joost van den Vondel, who became a regular visitor at her house.^[4] Vondel had married Mayken de Wolff, who was the sister of Agnes's first husband's father. This elderly uncle ate at her house on Fridays, and is probably one of her greatest influences.^[5]

Vijverhof

After the death of her first husband, Agneta bought a country estate on the Vecht river in Loenen, which she proceeded to decorate with a large collection of curiosities. She also developed the gardens of her estate, which were planted with exotic plants. Vijverhof was recognized as the largest and most reputable garden managed by a woman in the seventeenth century.^[6] She enjoyed drawing and painting in water colors, and her garden lent itself to this hobby. She is registered as an artist with the Dutch Institute of Art History as a papercut artist and painter, but no works survive.^[7] To embellish her albums, she hired artists to paint for her albums. Unfortunately, her collection and the garden have not survived, but research has revealed many of the original pages of her three albums in the albums of later collectors.

Alida Withoos was - with her brother Pieter Withoos - one of the many artists from Hoorn who painted plants while in residence at Vijverhof. Agnes Block's stepson owned a summer house in Purmerend, near Hoorn. Other painters from Hoorn were Johannes Bronkhorst, Herman Henstenburgh, and a friend of Alida's father, Otto Marseus van Schrieck.^[5]

Painters from other cities who lived at Vijverhof and made contributions were Maria Sibylla Merian (their relationship beginning on the 1690s),^[8] Merian's daughter Johanna Helena Herolts-Graff, Pieter Holsteyn II, Nicolaas Juweel (Rotterdam, 1639 - Rotterdam, 1704), Jan Moninckx, Maria Moninckx, Herman Saftleven, Rochus van Veen, Marino Benaglia Venetiano, and Nicolaes de Vree.^[9]

As well as being a patron of the arts, Block was also a keen amateur botanist.^[10]^[11] Block was in regular correspondence with other horticulturalists such as Jan Commelin.

Career

For Block’s album, Maria Sibylla Merian, produced eighteen sets of plant studies.^[12] Joost van den Vondel, a friend and relative of Block, wrote about Block’s paper-cuttings.^[13]

Bloemenboek

Bloemenboek was Block's collection of botanic watercolors.^[14]^[15]

References

^ Van Dyk, Garritt (2022). "Plants as Luxury Foods". In Milam, Jennifer (Ed.). A Cultural History of Plants in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Vol. 4. London: Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 51-68. ISBN 9781474273497. OCLC 1402246090.
^ Goldstein, Claudia. “Gender and Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science: Agnes Block, Botany, and Networks in the Dutch 17th Century.” Woman’s Art Journal 46, no. 1 (2025): 73–76. EBSCOhost. https://research-ebsco-com.ric.idm.oclc.org/c/otefx4/search/details/pkwxw3daon?db=vth&limiters=None&q=%22Agnes+Block%22&searchMode=all
^ Powell, Catherine. “Locating Early Modern Women’s Participation in the Public Sphere of Botany Agnes Block (1629-1704) and Networks in Print.” Early Modern Low Countries 4, no. 2 (2020): 234–58. https://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.147.
^ Biography Agnes Block in 1001 Vrouwen uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis
^ a b Alida Withoos and her work - Digital exhibitions of Bibliotheek Wageningen UR
^ Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Toledo Museum of Art, and Munich Pinakothek, Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art. Robert Schindler, Bernd Ebert, and Anna C. Knaap, eds. Boston: MFA Publications, 2026.
^ Agnes Block in the RKD
^ Kemp, Theresa, Catherine Powell, and Beth Link. “Accounting for Early Modern Women in the Arts: Reconsidering Women’s Agency, Networks, and Relationships.” In Challenging Women’s Agency and Activism in Early Modernity, edited by Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, 283–308. Amsterdam University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1dc9kcm.17.
^ L. Missel, ‘Agnes Blok en Vijverhof’, in: Vrouwen in de botanie en kunst
^ Powell, Catherine (2020-12-20). "Locating Early Modern Women's Participation in the Public Sphere of Botany: Agnes Block (1629-1704) and Networks in Print". Early Modern Low Countries. 4 (2): 234–258. doi:10.18352/emlc.147. ISSN 2543-1587.
^ Powell-Warren, C., 2022. Pineapple lady: expertise and exoticism in Agnes Block's self-representation as Flora Batava. In: LEIS, A. (editor), Women, collecting, and cultures beyond Europe, pp. 95–99. New York.
^ Honig, Elizabeth Alice. “The Art of Being ‘Artistic’: Dutch Women’s Creative Practices in the 17th Century.” Woman’s Art Journal 22, no. 2 (2001): 31–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/1358900.
^ Peacock, Martha Moffitt. “Paper as Power: Carving a Niche for the Female Artist in the Work of Joanna Koerten.” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek (NKJ) / Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 62 (2012): 238–65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43883877.
^ Goldstein, Claudia. “Gender and Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science: Agnes Block, Botany, and Networks in the Dutch 17th Century.” Woman’s Art Journal 46, no. 1 (2025): 73–76. EBSCOhost
^ Powell-Warren, Catherine (2023). "The Bloemenboek and Block's Watercolours: Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science". Gender and Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science: Agnes Block, Botany, and Networks in the Dutch 17th Century: 207–42.

External links

Biography of Alida Withoos in 1001 Vrouwen uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis
Konstboeck Website of Wageningen university with period illustrations of plants, some of which came from Agnes Block's collection
Information over Vijverhof in Dutch
Website of the Netherlands Institute for Ecology showing an old print of Vijverhof
Print of Vijverhof showing the owner in 1710 in the website of the Utrecht archives

[1] Van Dyk, Garritt (2022). "Plants as Luxury Foods". In Milam, Jennifer (Ed.). A Cultural History of Plants in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Vol. 4. London: Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 51-68. ISBN 9781474273497. OCLC 1402246090.

[2] Goldstein, Claudia. “Gender and Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science: Agnes Block, Botany, and Networks in the Dutch 17th Century.” Woman’s Art Journal 46, no. 1 (2025): 73–76. EBSCOhost. https://research-ebsco-com.ric.idm.oclc.org/c/otefx4/search/details/pkwxw3daon?db=vth&limiters=None&q=%22Agnes+Block%22&searchMode=all

[3] Powell, Catherine. “Locating Early Modern Women’s Participation in the Public Sphere of Botany Agnes Block (1629-1704) and Networks in Print.” Early Modern Low Countries 4, no. 2 (2020): 234–58. https://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.147.

[4] Biography Agnes Block in 1001 Vrouwen uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis

[Alida-5] Alida Withoos and her work - Digital exhibitions of Bibliotheek Wageningen UR

[6] Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Toledo Museum of Art, and Munich Pinakothek, Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art. Robert Schindler, Bernd Ebert, and Anna C. Knaap, eds. Boston: MFA Publications, 2026.

[7] Agnes Block in the RKD

[8] Kemp, Theresa, Catherine Powell, and Beth Link. “Accounting for Early Modern Women in the Arts: Reconsidering Women’s Agency, Networks, and Relationships.” In Challenging Women’s Agency and Activism in Early Modernity, edited by Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, 283–308. Amsterdam University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1dc9kcm.17.

[9] L. Missel, ‘Agnes Blok en Vijverhof’, in: Vrouwen in de botanie en kunst

[10] Powell, Catherine (2020-12-20). "Locating Early Modern Women's Participation in the Public Sphere of Botany: Agnes Block (1629-1704) and Networks in Print". Early Modern Low Countries. 4 (2): 234–258. doi:10.18352/emlc.147. ISSN 2543-1587.

[11] Powell-Warren, C., 2022. Pineapple lady: expertise and exoticism in Agnes Block's self-representation as Flora Batava. In: LEIS, A. (editor), Women, collecting, and cultures beyond Europe, pp. 95–99. New York.

[12] Honig, Elizabeth Alice. “The Art of Being ‘Artistic’: Dutch Women’s Creative Practices in the 17th Century.” Woman’s Art Journal 22, no. 2 (2001): 31–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/1358900.

[13] Peacock, Martha Moffitt. “Paper as Power: Carving a Niche for the Female Artist in the Work of Joanna Koerten.” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek (NKJ) / Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 62 (2012): 238–65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43883877.

[14] Goldstein, Claudia. “Gender and Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science: Agnes Block, Botany, and Networks in the Dutch 17th Century.” Woman’s Art Journal 46, no. 1 (2025): 73–76. EBSCOhost

[15] Powell-Warren, Catherine (2023). "The Bloemenboek and Block's Watercolours: Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science". Gender and Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science: Agnes Block, Botany, and Networks in the Dutch 17th Century: 207–42.