August 20, 2014
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Maria van Oosterwijk, also spelled Oosterwijck or Oosterwyck (August 20, 1630 - November 12, 1693), was a Dutch Baroque painter, specializing in richly detailed still lifes.

She was one of only three significant women artists in Dutch Golden Age painting, of whom Rachel Ruysch was also a flower painter, and Judith Leyster mainly not (the German botanic illustrator Maria Sybille Merian also moved to Amsterdam).

She was born at Nootdorp and was a student of Jan Davidsz de Heem. Van Oosterwijk worked in Delft and later in Amsterdam (1675 – 1689), where she lived opposite the workshop of Willem van Aelst. She was popular with European royalty, including Emperor Leopold, Louis XIV of France and William III of England. Despite this, as a woman, she was not allowed to join the painters' guild.

Her work was highly regarded, and according to Houbraken she gained international fame, selling pieces eventually to various heads of state, including 3 pieces for the King of Poland. She never married, and died in Uitdam at the house of her sister's son, Jacobus van Assendelft.

Her work is in many prominent collections, including the Mauritshuis, the Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge), the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna), the Palatine Gallery in Palazzo Pitti (Florence), the Royal Collection, and the Cincinnati Art Museum.