Standing Tall

by Jon Burch Photography

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Price

$250

Dimensions

16.000 x 24.000 inches

Title

Standing Tall

Artist

Jon Burch Photography

Medium

Photograph - Digital Capture

Description

Tulips were originally a wild flower growing in Central Asia and were first cultivated by the Turks as early as 1,000 AD. The flower was introduced in Western Europe and the Netherlands in the 17th century by Carolus Clusius, a famous biologist from Vienna. In the 1590's he became the director of the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden, the oldest botanical garden of Europe, founded in 1587. Clusius was hired by the University of Leiden to research medicinal plants and while doing so he obtained bulbs from Turkey from Ogier Ghiselain de Busbecq, the ambassador of Constantinople - present-day Istanbul. de Busbecq named the tulip after the Turkish word for turban, grown in the palace gardens and sent a few of the brightly colored flowers to Clusius for his lovely garden in Leiden where they were quickly planted. This was the start of the amazing bulb fields we find today.

In the beginning of the 17th century, the tulip began as a garden decoration but soon gained major popularity as a trading product, especially in Holland. The interest for the flower was huge and bulbs were sold for incredibly high prices. Botanists started to hybridize the flower and they soon found ways of making it an even more decorative and tempting specimens. Hybrids and mutations of the flower were seen as rarities and a sign of high status. In the months of late 1636 to early 1637 there was a complete "Tulipmania" in the Netherlands. Bulbs were usually sold by weight while still in the ground. The trade was called "wind trade".

Those traders made large amounts of money, and people started to sell their businesses, family homes, farm animals, furnishings and dowries to participate. The government could do nothing to stop it.
As summer turned to fall, the tulip became less rare and prices could no longer be justified. Dealers went bankrupt and thousands lost their savings. This "Tulip Crash" prompted the government to introduce tight trading restrictions. To have tulips in one's home was a certain way to impress friends and relatives but when the wealth spread down the social ladder, so did the urge to plant tulips.

This image was made in Cannon Beach, Oregon with a Canon 5D MkIII camera.

Photograph copyright 2013 Jon Burch Photography

Uploaded

May 29th, 2013

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