Bumblebees, beetles and buttercups
The natural talent of Geertje Aalders and Jac P Thijsse
30 October 2026 to 2 May 2027
Paper artist Geertje Aalders finds beauty in the very small creatures that many people might find scary, dirty or creepy. Her remarkable paper-cuttings are teeming with bumblebees, beetles and buttercups. For this exhibition at Zaans Museum, she draws inspiration from nature and from the Verkade picture albums from the early 20th century.
Seeing differently means seeing more
Aalders brings the Verkade albums to life in this exhibition with detailed paper flowers springing from Verkade tins and picture albums. Butterflies and bees also crawl across pages, inviting us to share Aalders’ her love of nature.
Take the time to have a good look at the back of a wasp, the wing of a butterfly or the snout of a beetle. If you look closely, you can discover just how special and beautiful these tiny creatures are. Maybe you prefer to take your time examining a paper insect up close if you find the real thing a bit scary?
This exhibition is an invitation to adults and children alike to pause for a moment, to look closely, and to discover nature through fresh eyes.
Geertje Aalders
Geertje Aalders (1983) grew up in Oosterbeek in the Netherlands, where her love of nature was sparked at an early age by her mother, a biologist. She still prefers to be outdoors, and enjoys searching for small creatures in the woods. This focus on the small and often unnoticed world forms the basis of her artwork.
In her detailed paper-cut artworks, Aalders brings nature closer to us and invites us to look even closer still. Her works are cut from coloured paper using a razor-sharp blade before being combined layer upon layer to creates 3D creatures. Some are almost indistinguishable from the real thing! The creatures are sometimes enlarged, and sometimes they are no bigger than a few millimetres.
Foto © Theo Tangelder
De Verkade-albums
That same sense of wonder is reflected in the Verkade picture albums by Jac P Thijsse. When the Zaan-based biscuit manufacturer asked Thijsse to collaborate on a publicity campaign, he seized the opportunity to share his love of nature. In close consultation, Verkade commissioned artists to create illustrations for the collectable pictures of plants, animals and landscapes. Thijsse wrote accompanying texts, and the albums became a huge success, thanks in part to his passionate writing. These albums managed to inspire generations of Dutch people to take an interest in nature.
Thijsse shows just how special nature is right on our doorstep and invites us to take a closer look at our immediate surroundings. At the same time, he emphasised the importance of protecting nature that, at first glance, might seem so ordinary.
Butterfly album
Most of the illustrations in this exhibition are taken from the Verkade album De bloemen en haar vrienden (Flowers and their friends) published in 1934. It becomes popularly known as the ‘Butterfly album’, but also features remarkable watercolours of flowers, bumblebees and other insects. These are painted by Jan Voerman Jr (1890–1976) and by father and son Cornelis Rol (1877–1963) and Henricus Rol (1906–1992). It is a cheerful and colourful picture album, and in its time it was a very welcome source of information about flowers and pollinating insects.
This exhibition has been made possible in part by:
