From the 17th century to modern art · Bouquets, seasons, color and vanity

Floral still life transforms an ephemeral bouquet into a laboratory of color, light, material and symbols.

From the 17th century, flower painting became an autonomous genre in Europe. It makes it possible to bring together in the same bouquet species that do not flower in the same season, to demonstrate botanical virtuosity and to recall the fragility of time. In the 19th century, Manet and Fantin-Latour sometimes reduced the composition to a few stems and a glass vase; the impressionists circulate light between the petals; Van Gogh transforms sunflowers and irises into pictorial energy; Redon and Matisse release the bouquet towards dreams and modern color. Each reproduction thus preserves the dialogue between observation, composition and decorative presence. The "Still lifes with flowers" selection notably compares Vase with fifteen sunflowers - Vincent van Gogh and Flowers in a crystal vase - Édouard Manet. His reading favors the material.

A painted bouquet does not fade, but it preserves the memory of the ephemeral: each petal becomes color, material and measure of time.