The fly in the arrangement

MUCH as it does with the ladybird that appears every week on the cover of COUNTRY LIFE, it takes eagle eyes to spot the insects hidden in the triumphal floral arrangements by 18th-century Dutch artist Jan van Huysum (1682–1749).

Celebrated as the Correggio of flowers and fruit, he painted elaborate still lifes bursting with grapes and figs, roses and tulips, melons and honeysuckles, often set against an Arcadian scenery. Among the blooms and fruits, perhaps wet with water droplets, he placed butterflies, but also ants, caterpillars or flies. Anyone with a passion for hidden objects games can now test their skills at Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham, Middlesex (www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk), home of Horace Walpole, whose father, Sir Robert, had been an admirer of the Dutch artist. A pair of van Huysum’s still lifes— Flowers in a Vase with Crown Imperial and Apple Blossom at the Top and a Statue of Flora (above) and Fruit and Flowers in front of a Garden Vase with an Opium Poppy and a Row of Cypresses, which have never been parted since leaving the painter’s studio— go on show there from May 18–September 8 and they feature several tiny insects. Some are easy to spot; others, not so much, so here’s a hint: ants are coming up roses to tiptoe through tulips.