These flowers are divas of history of art. Many Dutch lost their heads for them. 

Dutch masters were painting tulips in voluptuous still lifes as objects of luxury to certify the wealth of the merchant rank in the 16th and 17th century.

However, who really lost his head to the tulips is a painter who did exclusively local landscapes. Water, earth, plenty of sky, mostly grey and dull, a small boat on a horizon. Jan van Goyen speculated constantly with tulip bulbs and lost money on risky transactions permanently. He was painting quickly to earn  money for new bulb stocks. He was selling his works cheap and did not invest a lot in paint. 

Grey and dull landscapes of Holland were economically the most convenient: thin paint, no extravagant colors. He even left in some paintings white spots pretending to be clouds. Jan van Goyen was short of money all his life and his tulip stock addiction made him creative. Most museums have at least one painting of Jan van Goyen. Wherever you are, go visit your local museum and check whether they have a van Goyen. And then try to get as close to the picture as you can and find the thinnest spot of paint. 

Schleswig, Landesgartenschau 2008