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logo catalogue Bazille
Frédéric Bazille
1841-1870

The Digital Catalogue Raisonné

by Michel Schulman
© Musée Fabre de Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole / photographie Frédéric Jaulmes

Flowers

1870
Huile sur toile
63 x 48,5 cm - 24 3/4 x 19 in.
Montpellier, Musée Fabre, France - Inv. 2004.13.2
Dernière mise à jour : 2022-03-25 09:08:58
Référence : MSb-63

History

Famille de l’artiste, Montpellier - Marc Bazille, frère de l'artiste - Frédéric Bazille, neveu de l’artiste - Montpellier, musée Fabre,  2004.

Exhibitions

Paris, galerie Wildenstein, 1950, n° 56 - Montpellier musée Fabre, 1959, n° 38 - Vichy, galerie Napoléon, 1961, La vie artistique sous le Second Empire. D’Ingres à Renoir, n° 6 - Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 53, repr. p. 110 - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 1984, Bazille dans les collections particulières [s.n.] - Madrid, Bilbao, 2005, n° 50 - Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage, 2006, n° 91 - Madrid, musée Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2010-2011, cat. 5, repr. p. 62 - Montpellier, Paris, Washington 2016-2017, cat. 59, repr. p. 252 et p. 87 [Les références sont du catalogue en français].

Bibliography

Poulain, Bazille et ses amis, 1932, p. 221 [Dans cette page, Poulain parle d'une Femme arrangeant des fleurs et de Lilas, ce qui n'est évidemment pas le cas ici] - Laprade, Beaux-Arts, 29 mars 1935 - Sarraute, Catalogue de l'œuvre de Frédéric Bazille, 1948, n° 51, p. 114 [Thèse de l'Ecole du Louvre non publiée] - Daulte, Bazille et son temps, 1952, n° 54, p. 189 [Thèse sous la direction de Gaston Poulin] - Marandel, Catalogue exp. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 53, repr. p. 111 - Dejean, Cat. exp. musée Fabre, 1984, p. 1 - Daulte, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, 1992, n° 58, pp. 179-180 - Bajou, Frédéric Bazille, 1993, p. 42 - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné, 1995, n° 63, repr. p. 218 - Hilaire, Cat. exp. Madrid, Bilbao, 2005, n° 50, p. 152 - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné - Supplément 1, 2006, repr. p. 29 - Hilaire, Cat. exp. Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, 2006, n° 91, pp. 228-229 - Hilaire, Jones, Perrin, Cat. exp. Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, cat. 59, repr. p. 252 et p. 87 [Les références sont du catalogue en français] - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné numérique, 2022, n° 63.

No more than the other one, this floral composition is signed and dated, but it appears to be in the same vein. Here, however, Bazille has arranged his bouquet better. On a marble table, he has placed peonies, red tulips, and snowballs in a jumble on the left, and in the clear vase on the right, he has arranged narcissi and tulips.

This composition looks like the one in Renoir's 1864 Arum et plantes de serre: on the right, in Renoir's, stands in a pot, a magnificent arum; in Bazille's, on a wooden table, are laid loose multiple blue and white flowers. As in the other Flowers, the light illuminates the bouquet on the left, leaving a dark mass on the right that is probably a section of wall. This new floral composition, slightly larger in size, is similarly energetic, vigorous, and alert in technique. Bazille has emphasized the material that supports the light and its vibrations.

This painting, which may be considered a study, is in the same vein as the two magnificent paintings entitled Young Woman with Peonies [Previously Négresse aux pivoines]. His sensitivity, his very sensuality, make Bazille an incomparable painter of flowers. He has the gift of expressing their charm, their perfumes and of bringing out, each time, their colors. He fulfills himself perfectly in these still-ives, even more so than in his animal still-lives.

Among his floral compositions, the Flowers of 1867 [intended for the Teulons], are the most academic. But in his other compositions, as in the two versions of the Young Woman with Peonies, there is no doubt that Bazille can compare himself to Manet.

The destination of these Flowers remains to this day an enigma between various hypotheses with no real foundation.