Roses and tulips in a vase

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Roses and tulips in a vase
Édouard Manet , 1883
56.5 × 36 cm
oil on canvas
Private collection

Roses and tulips in a vase , even still life with roses and tulips in a Drachenvase , roses and tulips in Drachenvase , flower vase (roses and tulips) , roses in a vase or vase , ( French Fleurs dans un vase or vase dragon au ) is a Painting by the French painter Édouard Manet . The picture from 1883 is painted in oil on canvas and has the dimensions 56.5 × 36 cm. It shows four flowers in a vase decorated with gold decoration on a table top against a dark background. The picture is part of a series of floral still lifes that Manet created a few months before his death in the style of impressionism and which can be read as a vanitas symbol. The painting is in private hands.

Image description

The painting shows a flower vase with four cut flowers in the center of the picture. A yellow-red tulip protrudes from the vase on the left, a pink closed rose falls to the rear, an open red rose is on the right and a pale yellow rose in full bloom in front. The green foliage of the roses fills the space between the flowers, some leaves can also be found in the vase or protrude to the right over the edge of the vase. The tip of a tulip leaf can also be seen behind the tulip blossom. The vase is a tall glass vessel with an octagonal floor plan. The transparent glass is provided with a golden dragon motif based on an Asian model. The vase stands on a light marble slab that takes up about the lower quarter of the picture. It is cut off below and to the side of the picture edge. The rear edge of the table runs parallel to the lower edge of the picture and separates the foreground from an almost monochrome dark brown background. The light falls from above at a slight angle on the still life with flowers, so that behind the vase there is a short shadow to the right. The painting style is typical of the artist's late work and shows a loose brushwork in the style of impressionism. The painting is signed “Manet” lower left.

For the art historian Ina Conzen, the painting Roses and Tulips in a Vase has an “almost magical” effect . For them, “the painting of the surface ... becomes an expression of its depth.” Eduard Hüttinger sees “the materiality and the material objectivity of what is depicted sublimated to the highest degree” and speaks of “precious color miracles”. For Hüttinger, roses and tulips in a vase represent “a high point in Manet's still life painting”.

Manet's last floral still life

After Manet had already occupied himself with a few floral still lifes in the mid-1860s, he devoted himself increasingly to this pictorial motif in the last months of his life. These late flower pictures are not elaborate arrangements as they are known from Dutch baroque painting . Instead, Manet concentrated on depicting a few objects. In the picture of roses and tulips in a vase , the isolated object in front of a neutral background does not make it clear in which spatial context the still life is located. Only the marble slab known from other works gives a clue. Such marble slabs are used as a work surface on a sideboard , but can also serve as a table top. It is known that Manet had a table with a light marble top in his studio. This table was used for the representation of café house scenes and was also used as a surface for his late still lifes. Once, in the painting Der Fliederstrauß ( National Gallery , Berlin), Manet shows the table top from the side; in other pictures it can be seen from the front.

For his last flower still lifes, Manet could choose between seven glass vases in the household. From Roses and Tulips in a Vase , Manet chose a vase that he had bought himself in a shop in the Passage des Princes . The vase has a striking decor with a golden dragon - an exotic motif that corresponded to the fashion of Japonism of the time . Manet was familiar with Asian art through his visits to the Paris World's Fair of 1867 and 1878 . Above all, the Japanese woodcuts shown there had a lasting influence on his work. The vase with the dragon decoration may have come from a European production, where the Asian motifs quickly found imitators. Manet also used this vase for other flower still lifes, in which the dragon motif is only vaguely vague. In his last two pictures, Vase with White Lilacs and Roses and Roses in a Glass Vase (both private collections), the dragon motif appears less figurative, but almost as an abstract sketch. A similar dragon pattern can also be found on a bulbous vase, which he used for the painting Peonies (private collection) he painted earlier . Other vases in Manet's floral still life have no ornamentation or, as in the crystal vase with roses, tulips and lilacs (private collection), have a simple dot pattern.

In the various paintings Manet varied the types of flowers and, in addition to roses and tulips, also showed carnations, clematis, peonies and lilacs. The sunflowers or gladioli, popular with other painters, are missing in his work. Flowers usually came to Manet's house as gifts from friends as a convalescence. He suffered from symptoms of syphilis in the last few years of his life and had pain when walking. The bouquets of flowers were a welcome change for the painter and served as a template for small-format still lifes, which he completed in a short time without long, painful standing. Like all still lifes, Manet's late flower pictures can also be understood as vanitas pictures. In roses and tulips in a vase , from the bud to the open bloom of the flowers, a symbol for the life cycle is conceivable - however, such intentions of Manet are not proven.

  • Édouard Manet: The bouquet of lilacs (National Gallery Berlin)

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

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

  • Édouard Manet: Peonies (private collection)

  • Édouard Manet: crystal vase with roses, tulips and lilacs (private collection)

Provenance

The painting Roses and Tulips in a Vase was initially in the collection of the art critic Louis de Fourcaud in Paris. After his death, the picture was auctioned on March 29, 1917 as No. 49 in the de Fourcaud Collection in Paris. The art dealer Paul Rosenberg acquired the painting at this auction . It is possible that the painting was in the meantime in the possession of the art dealers Walter Halvorsen in Oslo and Herbert Colman in London . At the beginning of World War II , Paul Rosenberg was the owner of the painting. After the German troops marched in, Rosenberg fled France in June 1940 and had to leave behind his works of art. Manet's painting Roses and Tulips in a Vase then came into the possession of the art dealer Theodor Fischer in Lucerne under unexplained circumstances . The Zurich art collector Emil Georg Bührle acquired the picture from him in 1942. Bührle paid Fischer 55,000 Swiss francs for the painting offered as a vase . After the Second World War, Bührle had to acknowledge Paul Rosenberg's claims to ownership. Bührle acquired the painting again in 1948, this time from the New York branch of the Paul Rosenberg art dealer. He bought the painting, now known as the Vase au Dragon , together with the painting Port de Rouen by Camille Pissarro for 28,500 US dollars, which at the time was equivalent to 122,000 Swiss francs. After Bührle's death in 1956, the painting passed into the possession of his descendants.

literature

  • Ina Conzen: Edouard Manet and the Impressionists . Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit 2002, ISBN 3-7757-1201-1 .
  • Gerhard Finckh (ed.): Edouard Manet . Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal 2017, ISBN 3-89202-098-1 .
  • Lukas Gloor, Sylvie Wuhrmann: Chefs-d'ouvre de la Bührle collection . La Bibliothèque des arts, Lausanne 2017, ISBN 978-2-88453-207-5 .
  • Robert Gordon, Andrew Forge: The last flowers of Manet . Abrams, New York 1986, ISBN 0-8109-1422-0 .
  • Hans Jucker, Theodor Müller, Eduard Hüttinger: Collection Emil G. Bührle . Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich 1958.
  • George L. Mauner: Manet, the still-life paintings . Abrams, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8109-4391-3 .
  • Sandra Orienti: Edouard Manet, catalog raisonné . Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-548-36050-5 .
  • Henri Perruchot: Edouard Manet . Gebrüder Weiss Verlag Lebendiges Wissen, Berlin and Munich 1962.
  • Esther Schlicht: Last pictures: from Manet to Kippenberger . Hirmer, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-7774-2039-4 .
  • Denis Rouart: Manet . Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1957.
  • Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein : Edouard Manet: Catalog raisonné . Bibliothèque des Arts, Paris and Lausanne 1975.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The German title Roses and Tulips in a Vase can be found, for example, in Ina Conzen: Edouard Manet and the Impressionists , p. 753 and Gerhard Finckh: Edouard Manet , p. 298.
  2. ↑ The title Still life with roses and tulips can be found in Hans Jucker, Theodor Müller, Eduard Hüttinger: Sammlung Emil G. Bührle , p. 103.
  3. ↑ The title Roses and Tulips in a Dragon Vase is recorded in Henri Perruchot: Edouard Manet , p. 90
  4. ↑ The term flower vase (roses and tulips) can be found in Sandra Orienti: Edouard Manet, catalog raisonné , vol. 2, p. 88.
  5. ↑ The title Roses in a Vase can be found in Denis Rouart: Manet, pp. 90–91.
  6. ↑ The painting was referred to as a vase when it was sold in 1942, see Lukas Gloor, Sylvie Wuhrmann: Chefs-d'ouvre de la collection Bührle , p. 174
  7. ↑ The French title Fleurs dans un vase can be found in Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein: Edouard Manet: Catalog raisonné , no. 422. When it was sold in 1948, it was called a vase au dragon , see Lukas Gloor, Sylvie Wuhrmann: Chefs-d'ouvre de la collection Bührle , p. 174.
  8. ↑ The statement 1883 can be found in Ina Conzen: Edouard Manet and the Impressionists , p. 241 and in Gerhard Finckh: Edouard Manet , p. 298.
  9. ↑ The dimensions 56.5 × 36 cm can be found in Gerhard Finckh: Edouard Manet , p. 298. In the catalog raisonné there is a deviation from 54 × 33 cm, see Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein: Edouard Manet: Catalog raisonné , no. 422 .
  10. ↑ Ina Conzen: Edouard Manet and the Impressionists , p. 156.
  11. ^ Eduard Hüttinger in Hans Jucker, Theodor Müller, Eduard Hüttinger: Collection Emil G. Bührle , p. 103.
  12. ↑ Ina Conzen: Edouard Manet and the Impressionists , p. 153.
  13. ↑ Stéphane Guègan: Manet and the goals and limits of painting in Esther Schlicht: Last pictures: from Manet to Kippenberger , p. 33.
  14. ↑ Stéphane Guègan: Manet and the goals and limits of painting in Esther Schlicht: Last pictures: from Manet to Kippenberger , p. 33.
  15. ↑ Walter Halvorsen and Herbert Colman are indicated as intermediate owners in Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein: Edouard Manet: Catalog raisonné , No. 422. The name Walter Halvorsen is also mentioned in Hans Jucker, Theodor Müller, Eduard Hüttinger: Sammlung Emil G. Bührle , P. 103.
  16. ↑ Lukas Gloor, Sylvie Wuhrmann: Chefs-d'ouvre de la collection Bührle , p. 174.
  17. ↑ Lukas Gloor, Sylvie Wuhrmann: Chefs-d'ouvre de la collection Bührle , p. 178.