As I walked through lavender fields with the foliage celebrating their youngness and their spikes dancing gently under the breeze, I had the best experience of my life, commemorating all my senses, especially the aromatherapy experience and their innocent jiggling side by side during the entire visit. This intense purple shade wouldn’t be as enchanting to me if I hadn’t seen so many lavender blossoms. And trust me, once I walked those fields, my brain and body resisted even moving out from the place for once. The beauty of the purples was so enchanting that it really caught my heart more than any man ever did. In my emerging thoughts of this time, I began to reflect on the artist’s obsession with flowers. That was the moment when I realized why Monet’s Giverny garden, Vincent’s flowers, or Maria van Oosterwijck’s still lives fascinate millions. The innocent flower takes hundreds of twists and turns to form a lasting impression on the viewer. But what makes them stand apart from every single artist? Is it anatomy or arrangement or light or shadows? I believe the artist’s flower paintings connect us to them so well because of the emotion they convey. To commemorate this spirit and artwork, today, we are here to discover and explore the most famous flower paintings, which fascinate millions of viewers. So, let us get started.
The Beginning of Flower Paintings.
To start with, the birth of the flower painting is a little dramatic as it did not first take its form on the canvas because of its beauty or charm. Egyptians first painted flower sketches to study their medical properties in necessity. In the manuscript, they were better observed and then recorded for their herbal and decorative applications. This same type of flower lends itself well to painting in water-based pigments on vellum, a durable surface, and an ideal support, whether the plates were to be bound in herbal florilegium, botanical works, or botanical works with accompanying texts, whether before or after printing was developed.
It is inseparable from the intellectual progress of the sixteenth century that the flower became the subject of its first painting. It is in the Low Countries that flower painting gained its greatest popularity, although the humanist ideas of the Italian Renaissance and the spirit of scientific naturalism in Italy were also influential. Francis Bacon and his contemporary thinkers inspired scientists and botanists to reject received wisdom and make observations of nature based on their own observations. In this way, flower paintings emerged. Now, one question arising in every single mind is whether these floral paintings are merely for embracing their beauty. To answer it precisely, let me tell you that there was a long or considerable tradition of literature devoted specifically to flower paintings but to rely on them isn’t much relevant. Since we know that real flowers perish, still lifes carry the same meaning as texts and emblems that describe their perishability. Paintings of flowers in oil, however, should be understood differently from textual descriptions of flowers, if only because oil paintings were often praised in poetry as being more durable than real flowers. There is a broad selection of texts in Hoefnagel’s Archetypa of 1592, a collection of prints that depict a variety of insects, flowers, and fruits, ranging from the sorrowful and religious to the witty and bawdy. Several texts express the joy of spring, while others emphasize the short life of flowers. Therefore, floral paintings can convey a variety of meanings and are not merely depicted as expressions of delight.
Now that we know a little brief, let us move toward 19 of the famous flower paintings.
19 Famous Flower Paintings Narrating Their Own Story.
1. Cowslips by Albrecht Dürer.
| Artist | Albrecht Dürer |
| Year Painted | 1526 |
| Period | German Renaissance |
| Medium | Gouache on vellum |
| Dimensions | 19.3 x 16.8 cm |
| Price | Not on sale |
| Where is it housed? | National Gallery of Art, Washington, Armand Hammer Collection |
In the countryside, the cowslips grew abundantly as their yellow flowers had medicinal properties. These flowers were plucked for cowslip wine, which acted as a gentle narcotic for the pain and palsies. The cowslip is also dedicated to Goddess Freya, following the Northern European mythology, and is said to open a portal to her treasure vault. Similarly, in Christianity, the symbolism is associated with Saint Peter, whose emblem is the key to heaven. The cowslip, which has its own name in German, himmelsschlussel (key flower), is associated with this tradition. Hence, a single type of flower has many connections to the traditions. In this flower painting, the cowslips are shown as still rooted in the soil, perhaps to reinforce a message that the flowers have a spiritual link between heaven and earth. Albrecht, who painted this mesmerizing study, is one of the great German artists who primarily painted the great religious altarpieces and was the founding father of botanical illustration, making his studies scientifically accurate. Aside from being one of the most beautiful and famous flower paintings, this artwork has appropriate accuracy when it comes to the illustration of botanicals.
2. Vase of Flowers With Jewelry, Coins, and Shells by Jan Brueghel.
| Artist | Jan Brueghel |
| Year Painted | 1606 |
| Period | Flemish Renaissance |
| Medium | Oil on copper |
| Dimensions | 65 x 45 cm |
| Price | Not on sale |
| Where is it housed? | Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan |
There were many still lifes considered to be painted from life. In this respect, Jan Brueghel writes,
“il quadro delli fiori fatta tutti del natturel,”
meaning the painting of flowers, all made after nature. Hence, we understand that the artist, Jan Brueghel composed almost all of his paintings after observing nature, without the aid of any previous drawings or sketches. The artist’s brushwork especially had a melting softness, perfect for rendering the fragility of the flower petals and the translucence of their colors. In the most generous sense, his works are almost artificial, as he assembles impossibly large quantities of flowers, clustering the tiny ones like snowdrops, violas, cyclamen, and primulas on the vase’s rim while the large blooms rise majestically. In this painting, the large bouquet of flowers has varying shades of red, orange, blue, yellow, and white with few objects like shells, coins, and jewelry. Initially, the viewer is awed by the beauty of the intoxicating sweet flowers. As soon as they move their eyes, their sight returns to the bouquet’s buds, enticing them back into the painting and encouraging them to talk about flowers. Brueghel used colossal scale to create a crowded composition. By depicting these plants in such a convincing manner, Brueghel demonstrates his high level of knowledge about the cultivation of these plants. The artist often studied flower specimens from life, but this particular arrangement of such remarkable variability must have been the result of his own creative vision and inspiration. Brueghel’s masterpiece provides a foundational understanding of how a flower’s still life began as one of the earliest examples.
3. Almond Blossoms by Vincent van Gogh.
| Artist | Vincent van Gogh |
| Year Painted | 1890 |
| Period | Post-Impressionism |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 73.5 x 92 cm |
| Price | Not on sale |
| Where is it housed? | Rijksmuseum Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent Van Gogh Foundation) |
The painting portrays small white flowers over the tree branches against a sky-blue background. It shows the almond tree flowers in the early spring. With a bold outline of the tree branches and soft brushstrokes of the white flowers, Vincent further used diagonal line movement to complicate the artwork. A little history of the Almond Blossoms is that Vincent painted this in 1890 to mark the birth of Theo’s son Vincent Willem on 31 January. Hence, there is a symbolic association in the painting, as it marks the emergence of new life, and the artist wants to bring out his calmness and happiness through this painting. Vincent devoted a great deal of attention to each individual flower and gave buds to each of them as if they were still closed but had a point of bursting through a pretty and unemphatic touch of red. Using broad and skillful brushstrokes, this painting is certainly a tour de force, focussing on the traditional studies of trees in bloom.
4. Flowerpiece by Abraham Mignon.
| Artist | Abraham Mignon |
| Year Painted | 1670 |
| Period | Baroque |
| Medium | Oil on panel |
| Dimensions | 50.8 x 36.8 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge |
Still-life paintings of the seventeenth century generally celebrate sensual delights with a message of transience, but many of Mignon’s paintings contain more threatening symbols than snails and caterpillars since religious beliefs were still intense behind these paintings of material objects. It is a similar kind of thought, which have been carried out in this composition. Mignon imitated the flowers with a very good effect in the Dutch flower paintings, but his choice of flowers varied. In addition to the cacophony of central color, thistles and thorn apples lurk in the shadows, as well as the wheat stalks, characteristic of De Heem’s paintings. A delicate pink geranium emerges from the penumbra and balances the only tulip; a bistort spike adds more pink. The orange lantern of physalis holds a berry that also reflects the light over the glass vase with its mirrored sky. A curve runs upwards through the painting, highlighting morning glory, nigella, and a tall blue iris, all juxtaposed against red flowers, culminating in the exploding petals of the topmost poppy. The red flowers in the center steal the show. The central rose beams a white light on the hollyhock, and guelder rose so that there is a mark of shadow casting. There is a single yellow rose, Rosa Foetida; a double pink rose, Rosa Centifolia; and the new cultivating flower, Rosa Mundi, giving a blended look with streaked tulips and carnations.
5. Still Life of Flowers on Woodland Ground by Rachel Ruysch.
| Artist | Rachel Ruysch |
| Year Painted | 1690 |
| Period | Baroque |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 93 x 74 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | Gemaldegalerie, Kassel |
In the 1670s, the ‘forest floors’ painting really grew astonishingly popular, and all the artists, including Rachel Ruysch, showed this kind of work. Now, forest floors typically included dark, reptilian scenes enlivened by flowers and butterflies. This kind of painting was invented by the famous Dutch artist Otto Marseus van Schrieck, who died in 1678. Rachel’s father, Frederick Ruysch, an anatomy and botany professor, owned an exceptional collection of preserved skeletons and organs, which were on display in Amsterdam for the general public to see. Maria Sibylla Merian, another eminent female artist, was inspired by these scientific displays and juxtaposed insects and flowers. Rachel had a similar kind of experience and talent. The seventeenth-century artists were fascinated by the reptiles and insects with great attention to detail. Symbols of light and dark and moral and material values are conjured up in these forest floor paintings. The artist portrays the imaginative overload that turned the woodland into an enchanted glade, filled with blooms bursting from stumps of rotten wood, toads, and toadstools that appeared like ingredients in a witch’s brew since the artist probably knew the morning glories were hallucinogenic. However, despite these sinister surroundings in this famous flower painting, Rachel retains the traditional religious iconography of purity and spirituality through the choice of flowers like lilies, roses, and peonies. The choice of colors, immaculate iconography, and sensitive details of flowers make this painting even more outstanding.
6. Flowers in a Vase by Jan Van Huysum.
| Artist | Jan Van Huysum |
| Year Painted | 1726 |
| Period | Dutch Golden Age |
| Medium | Oil on mahogany panel |
| Dimensions | 80 x 60.1 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | Wallace Collection, London |
Despite fitting perfectly into the gilded rococo interiors of the eighteenth century with his curvaceous swirls, Jan van Huysum placed his flowers outdoors on marble ledges, grouped in large terracotta pots just as they might grow; and a sun-dappled, tree-lined vista, receding behind them, ushered in the landscape garden movement. Unlike previous dark backgrounds or formal lines, the floral paintings of this time changed as they were placed with the same flowers at different angles in the choicest blooms with lighter backgrounds. In this famous flower painting, the massive orange fritillary with an impressive topknot takes the first impression of the viewer. Furthermore, it is Van Huysum’s favorite crown to head a composition, along with the balanced quince blossom and double hyacinths. A few other double flowers in this artwork include peonies, poppies, roses, and anemones, floating across the center like silk scarves. But tulips and narcissi of springtime continue to sing out, and snakeshead fritillaries and honeysuckles still droop. With them, the new flowers included in this artwork are auriculas, clustered at the lip of the vase and on the ledge. Hence, these flowers together, with a half-sided tree shade and butterfly, form an unconventional artwork. Each flower has many contrasts and shades, with the velvety shades of purple, maroon, brown, and green, arousing the collector’s instincts, making it a one-of-a-kind floral painting.
7. Fighting Humming Birds With Pink Orchid by Martin Johnson Heade.
| Artist | Martin Johnson Heade |
| Year Painted | 1875 |
| Period | American Luminist |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 40.6 x 35.6 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | Private Collection |
Early in his artistic career, Martin Johnson Heade left Pennsylvania to spend two years in Rome, where he gained the reputation of being a landscape artist, specializing in the coastal sale mashes of New England, including the atmospheric masterpieces of sunset and moonlight. But after his trip to Brazil in 1863-4, he had the mission to create an extensive series of hummingbird studies and to make his reputation like Audubon before him with a great publication. For the rest of his life, he used the studies of the rainforests, which compiled his trademark paintings for the future. In this artwork, the orchid is a cattleya, the darling of nineteenth-century society. Almost extirpated, they were grown in hothouses, used in buttonholes and corsages, and made into alluring, spicy perfumes. In 1821, Cattleya Labiata became the earliest cattleya species to be found and named in tropical America’s forested regions from Costa Rica to Brazil. There is an entrance between the lower petal and a speckled tube, known as a labiata. Epiphytes live on trees, and orchids have pseudobulbs for absorbing moisture and nutrients. A botanical artist, Heade, captures the essence of the orchid, but he also brings to life its supporting mossy branches, the mountains beyond, the rain clouds that mask the light, and most importantly, he suggests the thrill of encountering such a plant in the wild.
8. The Garden in the Rue Cortot, Montmarte by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
| Artist | Pierre Auguste Renoir |
| Year Painted | 1876 |
| Period | Impressionism |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 152 x 97 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh |
This painting’s provenance dates back to Renoir’s early 1870s rental of a room in a dilapidated house in Montmartre with a rambling garden. The landscape was overgrown with neglected orchards, lawns turned into meadows, and rampant flowerbeds. Looking out of his window at this luxurious swathe of dahlias, Renoir painted them gleaming in the filtered sunlight and growing with the carefree abandon that became the hallmark of Impressionist painting. With loose, feathery brushstrokes, he mimicked their velvety petals, contrasting their rich reds and yellows with the dark blue-green leaves, and lighting the green shadows with the white dahlias. The garden landscape looks real with the setting, as the lush bushes of the garden flower create a side patch.
9. Still Life Brioche by Édouard Manet.
| Artist | Édouard Manet |
| Year Painted | 1880 |
| Period | Modernism |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 55 x 35 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh |
Édouard portrayed the flesh or flowers with such loose and peculiar brushwork that endowed them with a mysterious sensuality unseen before in any other artist’s work. Here, in this flower painting, Édouard showed the paint of the rose petals in a melting ice cream. In Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe, he referred to Giorgione and Titian, who had painted nudist women alongside fully clothed men, while in this still life, he referred to Chardin, who had painted a brioche topped with an orange blossom a hundred years earlier. While the image may seem romantic and puzzling, originally a flower in a brioche, simply indicated its flavor-orange blossoms and rose petals yield scented water that is used in confections- and early life decorations sometimes included pinks with their clove scent to decorate pastries. With a creamy pink, the rose enchants the viewer with beauty as it gets much enhanced by the gold tones of the brioche as if Edouard showcased his skill at stimulating the senses with paint. This famous flower painting is one of the perfect forms of the new hybrid tea rose, first bred in 1867. In this painting, the petals have recurved edges, and the center of the flower is outward pointing, all of which are characteristic of oriental influence.
10. Chestnut Blossom by Vincent Van Gogh.
| Artist | Vincent van Gogh |
| Year Painted | 1890 |
| Period | Post-Impressionism |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 72.5 x 91 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | Buhrle Collection, Zurich |
Vincent van Gogh was a Post-Impressionist artist who painted artworks to expel his demons of poverty, loneliness, and dark interiors. Letters he wrote as frenetically as his paintings, described his search for contrasts, often in terms of flowers,
“Cornflowers and marigolds- motif in blue and orange; poppies or geraniums in vigorous green leaves- motif in red and green.”
As he put it,
“I have tried to express with red and green the terrible passions of human nature.”
He began with sunflowers, painting them on a blue background, then using red and green brushstrokes. During his Arles trip in 1888, where he hoped to melt the gold, he painted his sunflowers against a range of backgrounds, including pale malachite, royal blue, and yellow itself, against which the ‘broken chrome yellow’ blazed forth. I have explained the splendid series of Vincent’s Sunflowers in my previous article, which you can refer to. For now, let us focus on this another famous flower painting of Vincent, Chestnut Blossom. Vincent painted the first flowers of Arles’ fruit trees, folding against a suddenly bright blue sky when he arrived there in the winter. And then he made wonderful tree drawings, both wild and calligraphic, done quickly with a goose quill. A few months later, as Vincent’s breakdown in Arles approached, he returned to Paris to his long-suffering brother Theo, who placed him under Dr. Gachet’s care in Anvers, hoping the countryside and Gachet’s expertise would bring peace. However, his life had other plans, and as his life’s end approached, the last months of his frantic painting began in May. Chestnut Blossoms was the among last works that ended in July with his tragic death. There is the horror of it in the sky pulsing with blue lines, but also the vigorous assertion of life, the truth of nature, the reds and greens, and the soft blossoms that connect the extremes. The vigorous brushwork, constant motion, and disturbing patchwork make it one of the sad artworks from the gallery of Vincent.
11. Still Life With Flowers by Paul Gauguin.
| Artist | Paul Gauguin |
| Year Painted | 1892 |
| Period | Post-Impressionism |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 40.5 x 32 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | Kunsthaus, Zurich |
In the decade before leaving for Tahiti in 1891, Gauguin abandoned his comfortable family life as a Paris stockbroker and collector of Impressionist paintings to become an artist; he no longer wished to capture reality, as his mentors did, but something more primal. Taking inspiration from ancient civilizations, he modeled ceramic heads with powerful crudity and claimed that his own blood was savage. In 1887, Gauguin used the term Symbolist to describe his simplified compositions, with their emphatic rhythmic lines and areas of unnatural, saturated color. In this famous flower painting, Gauguin chose vibrant, dark, and flowing colors to paint this canvas. Against these colors, he showed the soft, pale mauves and shadows of the bougainvillea flowers to portray the subtle tenderness. The tropical green leaves portray a poisonous tendency as the beautiful lake of red shows the scarlet of fresh blood. Behind this red lake, rests the hand of the idol with his hooded head lurking in the darkness behind the flowers. The yellow-watching eyes of this idol reflected in the center of the bougainvillea flowers show the mar of their innocence and beauty.
12. Clump of Chrysanthemums Garden at Petit Gennevilliers by Gustave Caillebotte.
| Artist | Gustave Caillebotte |
| Year Painted | 1893 |
| Period | Impressionism |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 99 x 61.3 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 824 |
Caillebotte joined the Impressionist circle after he returned from the Franco-Prussian War and inherited his father’s wealth. He helped to organize an impressionist exhibition of 1874. As soon as he financed all the significant impressionist exhibitions, he started including his paintings in them. In 1877, Emile Zola wrote,
“When his talent has softened a little he will be one of the boldest of the group.”
Gustave Caillebotte was a man of great ability and enthusiasm. Having trained in engineering, he designed, built, and raced yachts along with painting scenes of boating. He was fascinated by the newly invented technologies of photography, so many of his paintings have smooth, glossy surfaces and depict figures gazing out from balconies or gardens as if they had been captured unawares. When contrasting the intense sunlight on a garden terrace with purple shadows, he experimented with perspective angles and shadows. As he became passionate about gardening, he collected orchids and had his paintings of orchids displayed on the walls of his dining room. In this painting, Caillebotte showed the flowers of chrysanthemums as if he zoomed his camera lens towards the bed of these flowers. He lovingly conveyed their silky petals with the autumnal colors and untidy leaves, while creating a unique viewpoint for enjoying them.
13. A Basket of Roses by Henri Fantin-Latour.
| Artist | Henri Fantin Latour |
| Year Painted | 1890 |
| Period | Impressionism |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 48.9 × 60.3 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | National Gallery of London |
Henri Fantin-Latour was one of the most loved and famous artists who produced luxurious and famous flower paintings of roses and other high-society bouquets of his time, including flowers like delphiniums, dahlias, and gladioli. These floral paintings evoke nineteenth-century drawing rooms and cultured conversation, thus: ‘He asked her whether she had seen the flower painting by Fantin-Latour which had recently been exhibited.’ Hence, he was famous for his flower paintings. In around 500 paintings of his career, 100 solely showed roses. In this painting, Fantin-Latour used dozens of roses of different colors and placed them in and around a wicker basket. To highlight his artistry, each item is presented in such a way that the blooms’ heads emphasize their unique structure, color, and other characteristics. Each bloom’s head is turned in different directions so that the light catches its unique characteristics and highlights the subtle shades of white, cream, pale apricot, and pink, thereby balancing harmoniously.
14. The Flowered Vase by Paul Cézanne.
| Artist | Paul Cézanne |
| Year Painted | 1896-8 (probably) |
| Period | Impressionism |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 70.5 x 58.4 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia |
In the 1860s, when Cézanne arrived in Paris, he first joined the Impressionists uneasily. Though he shared man’s beliefs to abandon the traditional beliefs, he loathed their arguments as they assembled noisily at the Café Guerbois. When he painted on the canvas, Cézanne usually lacked the lightness of touch and though he believed as fervently as anyone in depicting nature, he needed a process of prolonged and painful concentration to compose something. In this painting, Cézanne showed the flowers, and chrysanthemums using short and vigorous strokes to make their petals. They are innumerable, straight, and tufted with colors like orange, yellow, red, white, and pink, using staccato brushstrokes, making them more pulsated with energy. Here, these flowers have no outlines but consist of vivid colors and diagonal brushstrokes, making them profusely emotionally connected to the viewer. The space around them is tilted forward as it is built up in tonal blocks. A rosy-brown wall and soft washes in the fabric reflect the colors of the flowers, removing the background. This canvas contains a high level of concentration accentuated by the contrasting blue fabric, the china jug, and the brighter chrysanthemums, as well as the white ground on the lower corner of the canvas that has been left unpainted.
15. The Water Lily Pond by Claude Monet.
| Artist | Claude Monet |
| Year Painted | 1904 (probably) |
| Period | Impressionism |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 90 x 92 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | Private Collection |
In 1893, Monet brought a meadow beside his Garden of Giverny, where the River Epte flowed sideways. The locals opposed letting him plant the exotic flowers in his garden, fearing that this would disrupt their water supplies and make their yields toxic, but instead, he passionately gave love and nourishment to his garden of Giverny to make it one of the most beautiful gardens of his time. Inside that same garden, he had a small pond where he grew water-lilies. These water lilies were new creations, and the plant breeder Bory Latour-Marliac pioneered a method of hybridizing the wild water lilies to resemble the kin of lotus. Monet said,
“I love water, and I love flowers- I took a catalog and made the choice- that’s all.”
In this painting, he showcased water lilies with different colors like red, yellow, and white with their leaves floating in the water, which also have reflections of the trees and vegetation around them. The relaxing brushwork, subtle colors, harmony, and reflections over the water made it a vernacular art piece for a collector.
16. Anemones by Henri Matisse.
| Artist | Henri Matisse |
| Year Painted | 1924 |
| Period | Impressionism |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 71 x 56.5 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | Private Collection |
Matisse’s flowers were the focal point of composite patterns. A swirling pattern and blocks of color surround his anemones. Their pink and purple petals echo on the background, their blues and reds fill the textiles, while their pure blacks and whites dominate the center. The artist loved anemones, which is clearly depicted in the painting. He used to paint them often, capturing them in a particular way as they sat in vases, either revealing more or hiding something. He carefully uses patterns of fabrics, which he amassed on his travels, such as the Moroccan tablecloth under his flower vase, blending the flowers with his luxurious exotic surroundings.
17. Vase of Flowers by Jan Davidsz de Heem.
| Artist | Jan Davidsz de Heem |
| Year Painted | 1660 |
| Period | Dutch Golden Age |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 69.6 x 56.5 cm |
| Price | Unknown |
| Where is it housed? | National Gallery of Art, Washington |
Jan Davidsz de Heem celebrated the beauty of flora, as he exemplified the concept of Ars Longa, vita brevis (art is long, life is short). Through the extraordinary delight in depictions of the natural world as an expression, Jan Davidsz portrayed exotic flowers, and plants brought back from faraway places. The artist was one of the most gifted and influential artists of the time who showed a variety of textures through the essence of objects. In this painting, the artist showed a profusion of flowers in different shades like white, orange, blue, and deep pink, with earthy-green leaves, while bursting from the opening of the glass vase. The backside is the dark brown background, the flowers are at the center arrangement. On the right, two tulips are shown with cream white and dark pink, while the anemone (flower above it) has white ruffled petals with red tip and blue center. Among curling green leaves, there is a snail in a rust-orange shell. An ivory-white hydrangea with clusters of tiny petals lies next to a half-opened scarlet-red tulip on our left. The entire floral centerpiece looks mesmerizing while portraying the emotions.
18. A Still-Life of Flowers in a Wan-Li Vase by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder.
| Artist | Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder |
| Year Painted | 1609-10 |
| Period | Baroque (Dutch Golden Age) |
| Medium | Oil on copper |
| Dimensions | 68.6 × 50.7 cm |
| Price | Not on sale (Accepted by HM Government instead of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the National Gallery, 2010) |
| Where is it housed? | The National Gallery of Art, London |
The artwork consists of some of the magnificent flowers in an almost artificial arrangement of artifice through the use of stillness and sharp outlines. The artist used petals with a brilliant sheen in an almost jewel-like color against the dark wall. Working on the copper support, the artist was able to create a smoother application of paint than on canvas, which further helped him to depict the exact details of the flowers. The artwork has such layers of glazes that the artwork has remained virtually without fading for over 400 years, which is a huge achievement.
The painting consists of an equal value of light over each bloom and even with the little overlap, they have been given an individuality by the artist as if every single bloom matters. A few smaller blossoms hide in the shadowy foliage, further giving the form and depth of the bouquet. The first four yellow tulips streaked with red flames in a cross shape to give a balance to the entire structure. If you are probably confused with the flower arrangement part, you can read this article, which gives an insight to arrange flowers for your home.
Around these precious tulips, there are roses, jonquils, carnations, fritillaries, and a single blue iris with Madonna lilies rising to shine, making a complete bouquet. Further, the apple blossoms that have fallen from the vase and the Red admiral butterfly nearby add a great deal of attraction to the entire artwork. The picture was probably composed by the artist to impress one of the wealthy burghers of Middelburg (a prosperous town).
19. Lilacs in a Window by Mary Cassatt.
| Artist | Mary Cassatt |
| Year Painted | c. 1880–83 |
| Period | Impressionism |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 24 3/16 x 20 1/8 in. (61.5 x 51.1 cm) |
| Price | Not on sale |
| Where is it housed? | The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
The artwork shows a dark aubergine vase with purple and white lilacs on a sill or a work surface of a greenhouse with an adjacent window of green finish. One of the characteristics of Cassatt’s best works is that she usually used simpler subjects but with an angular frequency and a dash of diagonal lines, further adding a great oeuvre to most of her works. The still-life flower painting is a mesmerizing painting, which was once owned by Moyse Dreyfus, a Parisian collector.
With soft brushstrokes, the artist fills the lavender color contrasting with the white in a vase in this artwork. But that’s not what makes this artwork special. It’s because of the reason that normally a still life would create a formality in an artwork but here the dynamic angles with a casual life-like frame dominate the frame.
Final Words.
I am finally concluding this article, but somewhere, I feel that this list is still incomplete, as there were hundreds of different artists, who composed floral paintings. Besides, this list I am writing about the rarest flower paintings, which very less people know of, in my leather journal using my recently bought custom pens. You can also check them out.
Lastly, I have decided that as I discover more and more artists, I will add their famous flower paintings here so that this article is always in progress.
Resources.
- Flowers by Peter Mitchell.
- Flower: Paintings by 40 Great Artists by Celia Fisher.
- Featured Image: A Basket of Flowers by Jan Brueghel the Younger; The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- The National Gallery, London.
Frequently Asked Questions.
Claude Monet is one of the most known artists to be known for his flower paintings, namely the Waterlilies series and the depiction of his Giverny Garden. However, it should be noted that the genre started with the studies of nature, among which Albrecht Dürer produced the most remarkable works.
Women artists are popularly known for their expertise in flower paintings. However, we can recall the names of Maria van Oosterwijck, Giovanna Garzoni, and Mary Delany.
Flower paintings were quite usual for artists like Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Jan Davidsz de Heem, and more. However, among them, Henri Fantin-Latour, a French painter, is remembered for his exquisite depiction of roses and other high society bouquets, used to decorate the interiors.
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