Press Release
Haarlem, 5 March 2015
Flower Mania
This spring ‘flower mania’ grips the Frans Hals Museum. From 20 March to 17
May the museum’s rooms and corridors will be filled with bouquets of flowers
and other floral art in specially-made flower vases and appropriate antique
pots. Alongside this display of magnificent flowers the display focuses on
flowers in the Golden Age. As well as splendid flower still lifes, visitors can see
an authentic Tulip Book with work by the famous painter Judith Leyster. A
number of paintings and prints tell the story of the seventeenth-century
outbreak of tulip mania—the incredible speculation in tulip bulbs, when a bulb
was literally worth its weight in gold.
There are flowers all year round in the Frans Hals Museum—in paintings, on tiles, on
wallpaper and in other works of art—but at this time of the year we also have the real thing!
Volunteers from the Friends of the Frans Hals Museum will be brightening up the museum
with tulips, narcissi, hyacinths and other spring flowers. They will be using vases from the
museum’s collection by Bernard Heesen, Jan van de Vaart, Piet Hein Eek, Bert Frijns and
others. The Friends’ magnificent flower arrangements have become a highly-valued tradition
that the museum has cherished for many years. This spring the flowers can be enjoyed even
longer, thanks in part to the help of master florist Paul Wijkmeijer.
Flower Mania is part of a joint venture involving the Frans Hals Museum, Keukenhof, the
Jopenkerk and Haarlem Marketing. Together they will take visitors on a Tulip Mania tour
through Haarlem and Keukenhof park where the tulip mania of the Golden Age comes to life
again. Haarlem, situated in the bulb-growing area, has for years been regarded as the city of
flowers.
Flower Mania has been made possible by the Friends of the Frans Hals Museum | De Hallen
Haarlem Foundation, Paul Wijkmeijer (Klavertje vijf, Haarlem), Annemieke’s Pluktuin
(Hillegom), A.C. van Graven (De Zilk), A. van Ruiten (Noordwijkerhout), W.F. Leenen
(Voorhout), Dobbeflowers (Aalsmeer), Flower Boost (Noordwijkerhout) and the Caprera
Open Air Theatre (Bloemendaal).
The Frans Hals Museum is accompanying this special Flower Mania experience with a free
audio tour/app in Dutch and English.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Title
Dates
Location
Telephone
Opening times
Flower Mania
20 March to 17 May 2015
Frans Hals Museum, Groot Heiligland 62, Haarlem
+31(0)23 511 57 75
Tuesday – Saturday 11.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m.
Sundays and Public Holidays Noon – 5.00 p.m.
For press information and images please contact Monique van Royen,
[email protected], T +31(0)23 511 57 83