Vase of Flowers

Vase of Flowers

Odilon Redon

Rapturous flower still lifes like this dominated the last decade and a half of Odilon Redon’s career and provided his greatest commercial success. His interest in plants and flowers began in his youth; child of wine producers, he grew up northwest of Bordeaux and was sensitive to fluctuations in weather, light, and temperature affecting the grape harvest. When he was 20, Redon met Armond Clavaud, a botanist and draftsman who illustrated his own compendium of flowers of the Bordeaux region. Clavaud’s meticulously rendered drawings sparked the young Redon’s imagination and helped to instill his desire to paint “nature, as seen in a dream.”

Colors in this work

Details

Date
c. 1905
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
framed: height 0.908 m, width 0.622 m, depth 0.102 m; unframed: height 0.73 m, width 0.59 m
Holding institution
Cleveland Museum of Art
Image provider
cleveland-museum-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Gift of Roberta Holden Bole

Art Genome Taxonomy

8 tags

Subject Matter

  • Still Life Both · 99%

    The image visibly depicts a composed arrangement of flowers in a vase, and the museum catalog identifies the work as a flower still life titled Vase of Flowers.

  • Flora Both · 99%

    Multiple floral forms, stems, and leaves are clearly visible, while the catalog describes Redon’s sustained interest in plants and flowers.

Visual Qualities

  • Dense Composition Visual · 96%

    Numerous overlapping blossoms and leaves form a concentrated, richly packed mass occupying the lower and middle portions of the composition.

  • Earth Tones Visual · 94%

    Ocher, brown, rust, and deep green dominate the image, with cooler blue, lavender, white, and yellow accents.

Medium and Techniques

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 99%

    The museum records the medium as oil on fabric.

Time Periods

  • 1900 - 1917 Art Metadata · 96%

    The work is dated approximately 1905, placing it within the catalog period 1900–1917.

Geographic Regions

  • French Art Metadata · 99%

    The catalog gives the place of origin as France and identifies Odilon Redon as French.

Tableware, Vessels, and Objects

  • Vase Both · 99%

    A single pale vessel visibly contains the bouquet, and the object is identified in the work’s title.

Source & rights

Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916). Vase of Flowers. Cleveland Museum of Art.

High-resolution sources