George Hitchcock artwork • painting • for sale Double White Tulips, Egmond aan den Hoef

The American painter George Hitchcock, student of Mesdag, was fond of the Dutch bulb fields. He started an Art Summer School in Egmond in 1890, which attracted many English and American artists every year and from which the Egmond School (1884-1905) arose. Hitchcock liked to paint flower girls, dreamy paintings of women in the bulb fields. Hitchcock's paintings were well received. In 1887 he won a medal at the Paris salon with his painting Tulip cultivation. Jean-Léon Gérôme spoke of the best work of the year. The painting was such a success that he made a second version, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art in London in 1890. The Double White tulips belong to the group: Double Early Tulips, which were immensely popular from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century and almost all descended from one tulip: the 'Murillo' (dating from 1860). The name of the white tulips in this painting is most likely 'Boule de Neige' or 'Schoonoord' (the two main white varieties).