Lilacs and roses

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Lilacs and Roses (Édouard Manet)
Lilacs and roses
Édouard Manet , 1882
Oil on canvas
32 × 24 cm
Private collection

Lilacs and roses , also roses and lilacs , ( French Lilas et roses ) is a painting by the French painter Édouard Manet from 1882. The picture, painted in oil on canvas, has a height of 32 cm and a width of 24 cm. It shows a still life with lilacs and roses in a glass against a gray background. The motif belongs to a series of flower still lifes that Manet painted in the last few months before his death. The painting Lilacs and Roses is in a private collection.

Image description

The painting shows a still life of flowers. In the center of the picture is a small lead crystal glass with roses and white lilacs. The slightly bluish-looking vessel consists of a low cylinder that rests on short feet. The glass is mostly filled with water, in which the plant stems and a single rose petal are visible. The art historian George L. Mauner remarked that the transparent glass allows a view “behind the scenes” (meaning behind the scenes ). A pink rose petal to the left and a yellow rose petal to the right lean forward over the edge of the glass. You are surrounded by green rose petals. Behind it, lilac panicles with white flowers rise up on both sides. On the left side the lilac blossoms appear almost flat in their opulence, on the right a smaller panicle is more wedge-shaped to the side. The lilac blossoms are characterized by a dotted application of paint. A similarly loose brushwork can be found in the rose petals painted with short strokes of color. The glass stands on a gray marbled surface that merges into a monochrome gray background just behind your feet. The transition between the stand area and the background is vaguely blurred, ascending slightly diagonally from left to right. Light reflections on the surface of the water and on the feet of the glass as well as shadow areas under the vessel and to the right of it suggest a light source above the subject. The painting is signed “Manet” lower right.

Manet's last works

Lilacs and Roses is one of a series of floral still lifes that Manet painted in the months before his death. For the author George L. Mauner, these pictures are Manet's “Adieu” - his farewell as a painter. Manet suffered from the effects of a syphilis disease, which mainly caused him severe pain when walking and standing. During this time he mainly created small format pictures that he could take while sitting. He repeatedly received flower gifts from his friends, which should bring joy to the sick painter. Manet took up these floral greetings several times as a motif and arranged them in different vases or glasses. Manet also used the glass selected for the painting Lilacs and Roses for the painting Flowers in a Crystal Vase ( National Gallery of Art ). In this picture, too, Manet staged the bouquet in the center against a gray background. Manet used a similar glass with spherical feet for the painting Lilacs in a Glass (private collection), in which he concentrated on lilac panicles with purple flowers, which were sketched in a particularly free style. White lilac appears as a floral motif in the painting Der Fliederstrauß ( National Gallery , Berlin), in which a dark background emphasizes the white flowers in strong contrast. The depiction of the lilac is similar to that in the painting Lilacs and Roses and the transition from the base to the background also runs diagonally from left to right.

As early as the 1860s, Manet had painted some large-format still lifes, including pieces of flowers with lush peonies. Such a picture standing in the tradition of Dutch baroque painting is, for example, the motif vase with peonies on a saucer ( Musée d'Orsay ) from 1864 . While classic still lifes are often read as vanitas motifs and address transitoriness, this is not necessarily the case with Manet's last pictures. For the author Stephane Guégan , these last works by the artist are “an expression of undiminished affirmation of life and vitality”. The late flower still lifes with their lively brushstrokes in the style of Impressionism show a “bold and haunting representation” that is “of enchanting beauty”, as the art historian Juliet Wilson-Bareau noted. The author Ina Conzen commented on the last floral still lifes: “The unprentented bouquets that were brought to the sick, home-tied artist by - mostly female - friends are untheatrical, completely isolated and in no way placed in the center of the picture by chance - the rest is a painting that shows the impressionistic, light style of the late period, but seems to be seized by an eternal inner glow that is independent of accidental external light moments. "

  • Vase with peonies on a saucer , 1864

  • Flowers in a crystal vase , around 1882

  • Lilac in a glass , around 1882

  • The lilac bouquet , around 1882

Provenance

The painting Lilacs and Roses was a gift from Manet to Ginerva Hureau de Villeneuve. Her father, Abel Hureau de Villeneuve, was one of the doctors who treated Manet in the last months of his life before his death. As a thank you, the recipient wrote a letter to Manet on November 3, 1882, in which she emphasized: “J'aime les fleurs, le lilas blanc et les roses surtout.” (Meaning: I love flowers, white lilacs and especially roses ). The next owner was the Parisian collector AM Galès around 1905 . Afterwards, various art dealers offered the painting: Around 1919 it was with Josse and Gaston Bernheim-Jeune in Paris, then with the Parisian Etienne Bignou , then in the London Lefevre Gallery and finally on January 1, 1929 in the New York art dealer M Knoedler & Co . In April 1938, the art collector Abby Aldrich Rockefeller bought the picture. Her son David Rockefeller later inherited the picture and kept it until his death in 2017. When the Peggy and David Rockefeller collection was auctioned at Christie's New York auction house on May 8, 2018 , the picture went to an unknown person for $ 12,968,750 Bidder. The painting was rarely exhibited in public. For example, it was shown in the Manet exhibition at the Matthiesen Gallery in Berlin in 1928 and in the Paintings from Private Collections exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1963 .

literature

  • Brigitte Buberl (Ed.): Cézanne, Manet, Schuch; three ways to autonomous art . Hirmer, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-7774-8640-X .
  • Françoise Cachin : Manet . DuMont, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-7701-2791-9 .
  • Ina Conzen: Edouard Manet and the Impressionists . Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit 2002, ISBN 3-7757-1201-1 .
  • Galerie Matthiessen (ed.): Exhibition Edouard Manet, 1832–1883, paintings, pastels, watercolors, drawings. Matthiessen Gallery, Berlin 1928.
  • Robert Gordon, Andrew Forge: The last flowers of Manet . Abrams, New York 1986, ISBN 0-8109-1422-0 .
  • George L. Mauner: Manet, the still-life paintings . Abrams, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8109-4391-3 .
  • Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein : Edouard Manet: Catalog raisonné . Bibliothèque des Arts, Paris and Lausanne 1975.
  • Esther Schlicht: Last pictures: from Manet to Kippenberger . Hirmer, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-7774-2039-4 .
  • Adolphe Tabarant : Manet et ses œuvres . Gallimard, Paris 1947.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German title Flieder und Rosen in the catalog Galerie Matthiessen (ed.): Exhibition Edouard Manet , p. 41.
  2. ^ German title Rosen und Flieder in Françoise Cachin: Manet , p. 155.
  3. ↑ The French title Lilas et roses comes from the catalog raisonné by Rouart / Wildenstein, vol. I, p. 300, no. 416.
  4. ↑ Brigitte Buberl (ed.): Cézanne, Manet, Schuch; three ways to autonomous art , p. 122.
  5. ↑ George L. Mauner: Manet, the still-life paintings , p. 168.
  6. ↑ Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein: Edouard Manet: Catalog raisonné , Vol. I, p. 300.
  7. ↑ On Manet's last floral still lifes see in detail in Robert Gordon, Andrew Forge: The last flowers of Manet .
  8. ↑ George L. Mauner: Manet, the still-life paintings , p. 168.
  9. ↑ Stephane Guégan: Manet and the goals and limits of painting in Esther Schlicht: Last pictures: from Manet to Kippenberger , p. 35.
  10. ↑ Juliet Wilson-Bareau: Manet: Immediately paint what one sees in Brigitte Buberl (Ed.): Cézanne, Manet, Schuch; three ways to autonomous art , p. 122
  11. ↑ Juliet Wilson-Bareau: Manet: Immediately paint what one sees in Brigitte Buberl (Ed.): Cézanne, Manet, Schuch; three ways to autonomous art , p. 122
  12. ↑ Ina Conzen: Edouard Manet and the Impressionists , p. 156.
  13. ↑ The original French quote from Ginerva Hureau de Villeneuve comes from the publication of the letter in Adolphe Tabarant: Manet et ses œuvres , p. 461.
  14. ↑ Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein: Edouard Manet: Catalog raisonné , Vol. I, p. 300.
  15. ↑ Information on auctioning the painting on the Christie's auction house website