Floral Still Lifes Through An Impressionist Lens

    The Impressionist movement in the mid to late nineteenth century was full of exploration and capturing of moments as they are noticed by the artist. Artists such as Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and Paul Cezanne created works of art spontaneously on the spot, often outdoors, rather than the traditional way of painting from memory in a studio. They captured nature and everyday life in a new and exploratory manner, noticing greater details in light and color and captured these shifts and patterns in a way that couldn’t really be done in a studio. These Impressionist painters often painted landscapes and other natural scenes as well as scenes from everyday life, and would turn to painting things like floral still lifes when weather didn’t allow for them to capture nature in the form of plant life, outdoors. Monet in particular, spent much of his time capturing flowers from his garden in floral still lifes he arranged. This show displays a collection of such still lifes, from many of the great Impressionist painters, all painted within around a twenty year range of each other. These pieces, while being from around the same time period, and from artists who were contemporaries with each other and members of the same movement, have some very prominent similarities, yet quite a few differences as well. By looking at these pieces alongside each other, viewers can see and compare the unique hand and stroke of each artist, while at the same time, more clearly identify the characteristics of Impressionist artwork, through their many similarities.

Chrysanthemums

Claude Monet

1882

Oil on canvas

MET: 239.100.106

    Claude Monet is one of the most prominent and influential Impressionists to which the name of Impressionism itself we can attribute. Throughout the late 1870s and early 1880s, Monet spent much of his time capturing the flowers and plants he so loved to paint in his garden and around him outdoors, in an indoor setting. Chrysanthemums, one of his many floral still lifes, captures the flowers as they are in an impressionist manner, falling all around including on the table rather than in an idealized bouquet common in a more classical style of painting.

Vase Of Lilacs And Roses

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

1870

Oil on canvas

Private Collection

    Pierre-Auguste Renoir, one of Monet’s contemporaries, painted this vase of lilacs and roses prior to shifting away from Impressionism, to a more disciplined type of Realism. Similar to Monet’s style of painting, Renoir captures the many intricacies of the flowers and leaves through the use of Impressionist elements such as the colors he used as well as the emphasis of brush stroke, rather than the creation of seemingly perfect forms and crisp lines. He seems to likely focus less on the perfection of the arrangement of flowers and more on the study of these intricate petals and leaves.

Pink Peonies

Camille Pissarro

1873

Oil on canvas

WA1951.225.1

    Camille Pissaro’s approach to capturing the very essence of flowers, somewhat differs from the style of other Impressionists such as Monet, Renoir, or Cezanne. While such artists as those previously mentioned, did paint with a certain softness, due to their emphasis on the form and texture found in their paintings, Pissaro’s approach to painting using elements of transparency allowing for the canvas to show through, as well as painting with a wet on wet technique, create and even greater softness, not found in the works of many of his contemporaries.

Dahlias

Berthe Morisot

1876

Oil on canvas

Private Collection

    Well known female Impressionists, and just artists in general, were not very common during the late 1800s. Berthe Morisot was one of the rare few who was more well known and accepted, and although she didn’t frequently paint floral still lifes to the extent that some of her other contemporaries did, her capturing of these dahlias, reflect exploration of flowers similar to many other Impressionists at the time. Interestingly enough, it was other Impressionists who appreciated this piece more than Morisot herself, publicly introducing it through its inclusion in an exhibition after her death.

Flowers In A Blue Vase

Paul Cezanne

C. 1875

Oil on canvas

Hermitage Museum ГЭ-8954

    Similarly to the style of Monet, Paul Cezanne puts a special emphasis on the form and texture of the flowers he captures in his painting Flowers In A Blue Vase. Like many other Impressionists, Cezanne creates the idea of leaves through the use of each stroke, rather than painting a specific shape to create a leaf. This element is seen very obviously in Monet’s flower petals and leaves, along with flower petals in Renoir’s floral still lifes.

Still Life With Anemones

Claude Monet

1885

Oil on canvas

19 ¼ x 14 in.

Private Collection

    Although many of the Impressionist floral still lifes display a very similar form and use of space, with a single vase full of flowers on a table, there are still quite a few that capture flowers in a similar manner, while focusing more on the flowers themselves including many pots and the plant life seemingly taking over, such as seen in this painting by Monet, as well as those of Frederic Bazille. Through his use of colors in this specific floral still life, Monet appears to spontaneously capture the color and light of the natural world in a more striking manner.

Study Of Flowers

Frederic Bazille

1866

Oil on canvas

Private Collection

    Influenced by his Impressionist friends and contemporaries, such as Monet and Renoir, Frederic Bazille turned to the business of painting floral still lifes, highlighting the Impressionist style. Similarly to Monet’s Still Life With Anemones, Bazille captures more than just the standard single vase of flowers, exploring in more depth and detail, the flowers themselves and capturing them with the vibrant colors displayed in most if not all of the floral still lifes of the Impressionists.