Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Flowers in a Vase

Flowers in a Vase – a dense bouquet that only separates at a distance

Renoir painted Flowers in a Vase in 1898; the original measures 46.0 cm x 55.0 cm and carries inventory number RF 1963-14. The work is at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, in the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume collection. Our hand-painted painting Flowers in a Vase is made by hand, in oils on canvas, in eight sizes from 60 x 70 to 120 x 150 cm.

Roses, red blooms and a glass vase

A dense bouquet stands in a glass vase on a dark round table. Full pink roses dominate at the left, with red and orange blooms beside them, a yellow rose at the centre and small white flowers breaking up the dense masses of colour. Above, a thin stem with pink flowers and a large green leaf rises out of the bouquet. The ground is an even pale blue, without detail.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. Renoir does not arrange the flowers into a legible ornament: the bouquet is built as a mass of colour out of which individual blooms emerge only far enough to be recognised. The glass vase is given in a few strokes that catch the light at its edge. A hand-made version keeps that difference between the dense mass and the few quick strokes; print gives both the same surface.

In the room

The bouquet is dense and only separates from a few steps back: from close to it is an area of colour, from a distance individual roses come out of it. So the painting does not belong in a narrow passage where you go by within arm’s reach, but where there is space in front of it – above a table, in a living room, or above the sofa, where you can step back. A smaller room takes 75 x 90 cm, an open space 100 x 120 cm, and on a large wall 120 x 150 cm works, with 110 x 130 cm as the step between. The smallest size, 60 x 70 cm, only makes sense where the painting really is seen from a distance, at the end of a hallway for instance.

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. Flowers in a Vase 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: dense bouquet of roses in a glass vase on a dark round table, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 60 x 70 cm to 120 x 150 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: it is the small white flowers that break up the dense areas of colour and give the bouquet its depth back

See also:

• Still Life with Bouquet and Fan
• Still Life: Flowers
• Long-haired Bather