Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
1864
Oil paint on canvas
130 x 96 cm
Acquired by Oskar Reinhart in 1927
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was only 23 years old when he created this ambitious painting. Adopting the large format usually reserved for full-length portraits, he depicts an array of potted plants clustered in a greenhouse. Rather than the lavish bouquets of cut flowers typical of floral still life, Renoir represented living plants in simple clay pots and wooden boxes, destined for planting out, perhaps in one of Paris’s new parks. His choice of plants, some of which – like the calla lily – were recent introductions to Europe, is similarly unconventional.
Painting flowers was a lifelong passion for Renoir, who regarded this traditional subject as fertile ground for experimenting with form and colour.