42. Still Life with Japanese Vase and Flowers [cca. 1930]

With a body of work that is rich in landscapes and portraits (especially female portraits), Camil Ressu captivates, this time, with a work dedicated to floral elegies. Flowers only appear sporadically in his work, his exhibition catalogs revealing only a few titles such as "Still Life with Vases and Flowers", "Still Life with Cornflowers", or "Poppies". However, we identify as early as the artist's adolescence, specifically at 15, when he creates his first watercolor representing a vase with flowers. Even in this genre, he adheres to the precepts of realism and usually positions it next to the vase with flowers, glasses or jars with brushes. Still life will be understood as an appendix to his monumental compositions, an appendix that allows him to study nature and the objects. In the present work, we identify an intimate still life, possibly a studio piece, into which the artist subtly invites us to venture. We identify the jar with working utensils, placed in the immediate vicinity of the elegant vessel. The rich crown of yellow flowers spills out of the vase, covering a significant part of the work surface. The presence of the two volumes placed on the table, near the border of the plants, is also remarkable. The brightly colored flowers stand out compared to the rest; the other elements, painted much more blandly, get lost in the monochrome background and blend in with it. The rarity of the subject gives the present work a distinct artistic value and places it carefully in the iconography of floral elegies.

Dimensions

width 70 cm, height 49.5 cm

Description

oil on cardboard, signed bottom left, in black, "C. Ressu"

Dating

cca. 1930

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