It is a springtime tradition at the Frans Hals Museum to decorate various rooms and corridors with bouquets and other floral arrangements. The underlying reason for this is that Haarlem, located in the Bulb Region, is considered the ‘City of Flowers’.

Until 9 May the museum is hosting the exhibition Judith Leyster: The first woman to become a master painter. One of the highlights is a recently-discovered floral still life with a vast bouquet of various types of flower. The renowned Tulip Book, with a Leyster water colour, is also on display.

Just like last year the varied bouquets are made up in vases made by the glass artist, Bernard Heesen. Heesen originally trained as an architect. During his studies, he worked regularly in his father’s glass studio, De Oude Horn in Acquoy. Just before his graduation, he opted for ‘glass’.  In the beginning, he worked among others for the founding father of Dutch glass sculpture, Andries Copier, and for his father Willem Heesen. In 1996, he took over the reins from his father in running De Oude Horn. Since then, he has worked on his own oeuvre, which is characterised by idiosyncratic design with humorous undertones. Bernard Heesen has continued the tradition of the studio and has produced his own work there up to the present day. In addition, visual artists visit the studio, which is also a breeding ground for experimental developments in glass art. Heesen has created new works especially for this presentation; he has drawn inspiration from floral still lifes from the Dutch Golden Age.