Annelies Dijkman

Blomhof, 2025

plants, soil, wood, steel

Artist and gardener, Annelies Dijkman, has designed a pop-up garden with flowering plants for Museum De Lakenhal's forecourt, as part of the exhibition Floris Verster - At Home in Nature. Like Verster, Dijkman is fascinated by how flowers grow, bloom and decay. This installation comprises plants whose scent, colour and structure appeal to our senses and emphasise the changing of the seasons.

Leiden has had a thriving gardening and plant collecting culture since the late 16th century, with the founding of the botanical gardens, Hortus Botanicus, in 1590 being the most significant highlight. The forecourt of the old Laecken-Halle dates from 1642 and forms part of a city palace in the Classical style: everything here is architecturally and coherently designed. Dijkman has conceived a garden that connects with the floor design of this courtyard.

During her historical research into Leiden's garden culture, Dijkman came across Marie de Brimeu (1550-1605), a noblewoman from the Southern Netherlands who lived on Rapenburg, Leiden, for several years around 1590. De Brimeu had a passion for gardening. Woven carpets with floral designs, so-called blomhoven, were a great source of inspiration. De Brimeu was absorbed by the beauty of plants, propagation, observation and gardening.

Gardening also distracted de Brimeu from the Eighty Years' War: 'Thank God the war does not seem to make the pleasure of gardening difficult or impossible for us'. Annelies Dijkman incorporates into her own Blomhof this quote from de Brimeu's correspondence with Carolus Clusius, the first curator of the Hortus Botanicus Leiden. Dijkman thus brings the historical forward to our own time, in which gardening and the beauty of nature offers us much needed comfort and healing.

Thanks to:

Gemeente Leiden, Lucas van Leyden Mecenaat, Woodwork Voorschoten, Metaalbewerking Heemskerk, Festina Lente Florike Egmond, Gerda van Uffelen, Anne Mieke Backer, prof. dr. P.J. Smith, Lau Heemskerk, John Kroes, Tijmen Smits