Roses in a glass vase

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Roses in a Glass Vase (Édouard Manet)
Roses in a glass vase
Édouard Manet , 1883
Oil on canvas
56 × 35 cm
Private collection

Roses in a glass vase ( French Roses dans un vase de verre ) is the title of a painting by the French painter Édouard Manet . The still life shows flowers in a glass vase against a dark background. In addition to roses, individual carnations are part of the arrangement. The work from 1883 is painted in oil on canvas and measures 56 cm × 35 cm. It belongs to a series of floral still lifes that the artist created in the last months of his life, which were marked by illness. The painting is in a private collection.

Image description

In the painting you can see a glass vase in which several rose branches and a carnation are stuck. This vase is also known from other pictures by Manet and can be seen there more clearly. The vase has a hexagonal floor plan and is decorated with gold with an Asian dragon. However, this decorative motif is only hinted at in the painting Roses in a glass vase and the decor cannot be deciphered. The different stems of the flowers can be seen through the glass of the vase, the flowers and leaves of which protrude over the edge of the vase. The flowers of the roses are open to different degrees; at the top of the picture there are two almost closed buds. The open flowers appear in different shades of pink, which Manet applied in short, curved brushstrokes. This lively painting style, related to Impressionism , is also evident in a single carnation blossom, which, only indicated by yellow dots of color, protrudes over the edge of the vase at the front. In front of the vase there is another carnation on the light background, which protrudes into the picture from the left edge. Its flower is painted in graduated red tones, with the application of paint being made up of short brushstrokes and dots. The vase stands on a light background, which could be a marble slab. Such a marble slab intended for counters in bars or coffee houses was demonstrably found as a prop in Manet's studio. The background appears as a monochrome surface in dark brown. The transition from the background to the bright surface is not marked as a clear cut edge, but appears indistinctly blurred.

The last paintings by Manet

Edouard Manet had suffered from the effects of syphilis since the late 1870s , which caused him considerable pain when walking and standing. In the years 1881–1883 ​​in particular, he created a series of flower still lifes in a rather small format, which could also be performed while seated and which were usually created in a work session. The motifs for this often came into the house as a gift from friends who wanted to make the sick person happy with flowers. Manet was also generous and usually gave the finished paintings away to women and men from his circle of friends.

Manet used eight different vases for the flower still lifes of the last years. The octagonal vase used in the painting Roses in a Glass Vase appears in three of Manet's paintings. Manet had bought this vase in a shop in the Passage des Princes , according to the records of Manet's godchild Léon Leenhoff . In the picture of roses and tulips in a vase from the beginning of 1883, the vase can be seen for the first time and the golden dragon pattern can clearly be seen on it. Once again Manet chose the vessel for the painting Vase with White Lilacs and Roses , which, according to information from Manet's biographer Edmond Bazire, was created on February 28, 1883. In this picture, as in the painting Roses in a glass vase, the dragon is only indicated as a pattern. In all three still lifes with this vase, the surface is probably a marble slab and the background is a dark brown surface. According to Bazire, roses were created in a glass vase on March 1, 1883. After that, the sick Manet did not enter his studio until his death on April 30.

The art historian Stéphane Guégan commented on Manet's last pictures that the paintings were “little more than sketches” and the painting was “still in the making.” He went on: “Within a genre that is adaptable enough to allow for a certain pictorial indeterminacy or to allow a certain visual indistinctness, Manet allowed himself all the freedom to the end. ”Although still lifes are generally associated with the subject of transience, Guégan sees in Manet's last pictures his“ undiminished affirmation of life and vitality ”. The painting style in these pictures is "without the slightest sign of sentimentality or self-pity."

  • Édouard Manet: Roses and tulips in a vase (private collection)

  • Édouard Manet: Vase with white lilacs and roses (Dallas Museum of Art)

Provenance

The painting was commissioned for Ignace Ephrussi (1848–1908), a friend of Manet and a brother of the art collector Charles Ephrussi . From 1902 the painting was in the collection of the wealthy New York Havemeyer family for several decades . From 1902 to 1907 the picture belonged to Henry Havemeyer and his wife Louisine W. Havemeyer . After the death of Henry Havemeyer, the couple's entire art collection remained with Louisine W. Havemeyer. In her will, she bequeathed more than 2000 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art , including several paintings by Édouard Manet. The still life of roses in a glass vase , however, was inherited by her son Horace Havemeyer. After his death in 1956, his wife Doris Dick Havemeyer inherited the painting and kept it until her death in 1982. Their children auctioned the painting in 1983 in the New York branch of the Sotheby’s auction house. On this occasion the entrepreneur Wendell Cherry bought the painting. After his death in 1991, the picture came to a private collection in Japan whose name was unknown.

literature

  • Edmond Bazire: Manet . Quantin, Paris 1884.
  • Françoise Cachin , Charles S. Moffett and Juliet Wilson-Bareau : Manet: 1832–1883 . Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, German edition: Frölich and Kaufmann, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-88725-092-3 .
  • Théodore Duret: Histoire d'Édouard Manet et de son oeuvre: avec un catalog des peintures et des pastels , Floury, Paris 1902.
  • Alice C. Frelinghuysen (Ed.): Splendid Legacy. The Havemeyer Collection. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1993, ISBN 0-87099-664-9 .
  • 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 and Max Hollein (eds.): Last pictures: from Manet to Kippenberger . Hirmer, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-7774-2039-4 .
  • Mikael Wivel : Manet . Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen 1989, ISBN 87-88-69204-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein: Edouard Manet: Catalog raisonné , Vol. I, D. 308, No. 429.
  2. ^ Françoise Cachin: Bar in the Folies-Bergère in Françoise Cachin, Charles S. Moffett and Juliet Wilson-Bareau: Manet: 1832-1883 , p. 478.
  3. ↑ Esther Schlicht and Max Hollein: Last pictures: from Manet to Kippenberger , p. 33.
  4. ^ Edmond Bazire: Manet , p. 127.
  5. ^ Mikael Wivel: Manet , p. 158.
  6. ↑ Stéphane Guégan: Manet and the goals and limits of painting in Esther Schlicht and Max Hollein (eds.): Last pictures: from Manet to Kippenberger , p. 33
  7. ↑ Stéphane Guégan: Manet and the goals and limits of painting in Esther Schlicht and Max Hollein : last pictures: from Manet to Kippenberger , p. 35
  8. ↑ Stéphane Guégan: Manet and the goals and limits of painting in Esther Schlicht and Max Hollein : last pictures: from Manet to Kippenberger , p. 35
  9. ↑ Stéphane Guégan: Manet and the goals and limits of painting in Esther Schlicht and Max Hollein : last pictures: from Manet to Kippenberger , p. 35
  10. ↑ The statement that the still life with roses was intended for Ignace Ephrussi comes from Manet's godchild, Léon Leenhoff , who compiled the inventory of the estate. See, for example, Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein: Edouard Manet: Catalog raisonné , p. 308 and Mikael Wivel: Manet , p. 158. Deviating from this, Stéphane Guégan noted that the picture was intended for the wife of Charles Ephrussi. See Stéphane Guégan: Manet and the goals and limits of painting in Esther Schlicht and Max Hollein : Last pictures: from Manet to Kippenberger , p. 33. However, this information cannot be correct because Charles Ephrussi was unmarried.
  11. ↑ Alice C. Frelinghuysen: Splendid Legacy. The Havemeyer Collection , p. 358. Also as the last owner with a private collection, Japan referred to in Mikael Wivel: Manet , p. 158 and as a private collection in Esther Schlicht and Max Hollein: Last pictures: from Manet to Kippenberger , p. 33.