Flora's Fool's Cap, or Tulipmania
Artist
Pieter Nolpe
(Dutch, about 1613–about 1653)
Date1637
Mediumetching on cream laid paper
Dimensions44.4 x 54.8 cm (sheet)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds given by Robert and Barbara Wheaton
Object number2006.8
Label TextNolpe’s etching recalls tulipmania, one of the most extreme examples of an inflated asset bubble and its subsequent crash. Today, fields of tulips are inextricably bound with the Dutch countryside; however, Holland’s tulips originated from Turkey in the late sixteenth century. Unique in character compared to Europe’s native flowers, tulips became a luxury item highly sought after by the upper and middle classes.
Tulips grown from seed are fickle and slow to propagate. However, expert cultivators in Holland used bulb hybridization techniques that led to speed cultivation and engineer variegated, or striped, tulips. Beginning in 1634, rare hybridized tulip bulbs commanded incredibly high prices. Some historians report that a single bulb could reap 5,000 florins, about $750,000 today. Many purchased their bulbs on credit. When demand for tulips began to wane in 1637, so too did the hyper-inflated market. Though the total number of people financially devastated by the crash was relatively modest, the sudden collapse of the tulip market had a seismic impact on investor confidence. The story of tulipmania became a parable cautioning would-be speculators against impetuousness and greed. In Nolpe’s print, this lesson is symbolized by the tent-sized fool’s cap where tulip traders conducted their business.ProvenanceSusan Schulman and Carolyn Bullard, New York, NYOn View
Not on view
