Bouquets: French Still-Life Painting from Chardin to Matisse, Floral Paintings With an Art Historical and Cultural Narrative

Editor's Note: In 1999, we attended an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, From Botany to Bouquets: Flowers in Northern Art. It was a small show but the paintings have remained with us throughout the years, memorable, beautiful, exquisite: "The beauty of exotic flowers are celebrated in this exhibition of 16th- and 17th-century Dutch and Flemish flower still-life paintings, watercolors, manuscripts, and botanical books." Dutch & Flemish exhibit

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, Bouquet of Flowers in a Glass Vase, 1621
National Gallery of Art, Patrons' Permanent Fund and New Century Fund

The Dallas Museum of Art is presenting the first major US exhibition to explore French floral still-life painting in the 19th century.

Bouquets: French Still-Life Painting from Chardin to Matisse traces the development of the floral still life from the late 18th century through the early 20th century, emphasizing the tremendous depth and scope of creative engagement with the genre throughout this era. The exhibition features more than 60 paintings by more than 30 artists, including renowned figures such as Paul Cézanne, Gustave Courbet, Eugène Delacroix, Vincent van Gogh and Edouard Manet, along with less familiar contemporaries such as Simon Saint-Jean and Henri Fantin-Latour (see following page). On view through February 8, 2015, Bouquets positions floral paintings within a broader art historical and cultural narrative and reveals how the traditional genre was reinvented through artistic experimentation in the 19th century.

Co-organized by the DMA and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) the exhibit provide a thorough reassessment of the genre, which has previously been underexplored and appreciated for its decorative qualities alone. The show features masterpieces from a variety of public and private collections, including eight works from the DMA's permanent collection — among them a painting by Gustave Caillebotte acquired in 2010 and which will be appearing in its first public exhibition since the artist’s death in 1894. The diverse range of featured paintings highlights the commitment of artists to the floral still life — many of whom are not readily associated with the genre — and underscores the active exchange of ideas, styles, and modes among artists throughout this time.

"The DMA is committed to organizing and presenting exhibitions that prompt critical reflections on a variety of periods and genres. Bouquets offers an exciting opportunity to examine the traditional still life through a largely unexplored cultural lens, expanding scholarship and understanding of 19th-century painting," said Maxwell L. Anderson, the DMA's Eugene McDermott Director. "The exhibition features masterworks from the DMA's collection in dialogue with works from the VMFA and numerous international collections, providing our audiences with a new experience of the genre."

Bouquets situates floral still life as an important vehicle for the examination of nature and culture and a potent source for painterly meditation. The exhibition explores the ways in which artists working in floral still life incorporated and responded to evolutions in approaches to both the arts and sciences, and provides a sense of discovery in the variety of artistic purposes and achievements in this genre.

Alexander Roslin, Portrait of Anne Vallayer-Coster, 1783. Oil on canvas. Wikimedia Commons

"Visitors to Bouquets: French Still-Life Painting from Chardin to Matisse will appreciate not only the sheer visual splendor of the works on display, but also the discovery of a clear artistic dialogue among artists of different generations working in the floral still-life tradition," said Heather MacDonald, the DMA's Lillian and James H. Clark Associate Curator of European Art, who is the exhibition co-curator. "The exhibition offers a fresh perspective on both an overlooked genre and the artists who worked within it, many of whom made pivotal contributions to the development of the floral still life in ways that have not yet been fully explored."

Images (left to right, above): Louis Tessier, Flowers in a Chantilly Vase, c. 1760, oil on canvas, Saint Louis Art Museum, Friends Fund; Gustave Caillebotte, Yellow Roses in a Vase, 1882, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., in honor of Janet Kendall Forsythe; Anne Vallayer-Coster, Bouquet of Flowers in a Blue Porcelain Vase, 1776, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, Mrs. John B. O'Hara Fund and gift of Michael L. Rosenberg

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Bouquets: French Still-Life Painting from Chardin to Matisse, Floral Paintings With an Art Historical and Cultural Narrative

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