Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemums – a cluster of blooms filling almost the whole canvas

Chrysanthemums is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, made in 1881–1882. The original measures 54.8 x 65.8 cm, is catalogued as 1933.1173 and hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. Our art reproduction Chrysanthemums is painted by hand in oil on canvas, in eight sizes from 70 x 60 to 150 x 130 cm.

That is what makes the picture unusual: Renoir is not painting a scene here but colour itself. The flowers are the excuse to set a warm red beside a cool blue and let the edges disappear. Step close and there are only brushstrokes; step back and there is a bouquet.

Petals drawn in single strokes

A mass of chrysanthemums fills almost the whole canvas in white, cream, yellow, orange and pale violet. The petals are set down as short curling strokes, so that individual flowers dissolve into one another. The bunch stands in a plain grey-green vessel, barely modelled, low at the centre. Behind it the wall is only a loose weave of red, brown, blue and violet – a ground made of pure colour, with nothing in it.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. The blooms are built from dense, short loads of paint that do not blend, while the ground is laid in with broader, more fluid passes over a layer that has already dried. A hand-painted painting keeps that difference in the way the paint sits, which printed paper cannot imitate.

In the room

The subject is lively but soft and copes well even on a wall that gets little light, so it works in a living room, a dining room or a bedroom. For a smaller wall stay with 90 x 75 cm, for a larger one with 120 x 100 cm; on a broad wall it carries 150 x 130 cm, with 130 x 110 cm in between. Under 70 x 60 cm the individual petals merge and the cluster becomes a single area of colour.

What you receive

We paint the canvas to order, by hand and for you alone, so every copy is made on its own; the canvas is usually painted and dried within three to four weeks. If you prefer, we will paint it in a size that is not on the list. Before despatch we send you a photograph of the finished canvas for your approval, and only then does the painting go out. Chrysanthemums arrives stretched on a wooden frame and ready to hang, wrapped in protective film and in rigid packaging, with no further stretching or finishing needed.

• Subject: cluster of chrysanthemums in white, cream, yellow and orange, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 70 x 60 cm to 150 x 130 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the petals are drawn in single strokes – each petal is one stroke, and from close to you can count them

See also:

• Still Life: Flowers
• Fruits of the Midi
• Luncheon of the Boating Party