Flower Paintings from the Permanent and Loan Collections, July 13-[August 8], 1943

For as long as humans have painted, artists have captured the beauty of flowers. Stylistically, artists throughout the centuries have painted flowers in Dutch Realism, Impressionism, Modernism, and Pop Art. Until the seventeenth century, artists rarely made studies exclusively of floral subjects. Before then, flowers were employed mainly as accessories to paintings. However, the development once begun was both rapid and widespread, and during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, particularly in Holland and France, there was a profusion of flower paintings. Although the flowers were executed with amazing fidelity to nature, careful consideration was observed to obtain an essentially formal and decorative effect. In this combination of restrained realism and feeling for formal design lies the great charm of the works of the Dutch and French painters. This dignified tradition lived on through the first half of the nineteenth century. From 1850 until 1931, almost all artists have at one time or another in their careers made flower studies.

Flowers have inspired artists with their delicacy and vibrant life energy for centuries. Flowers can remind us of the beauty and variety of life that nature has to offer. Depending on the time, you can derive diverse cultural meaning from the paintings of artists who painted flowers. The lotus in Ancient Egyptian ceramics, jewelry, and papyrus paintings was believed to stand for the sun, while artists of the middle ages saw ivy as a symbol of marital commitment. Flower paintings bloomed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as specialized botanical painters emerged. Floral paintings from this period often have deeply symbolic undertones with highly decorative imagery.

Sources:
Artincontext. “Famous Flower Paintings - Looking at History's Best Floral Paintings.” artincontext.org, September 19, 2021. https://artincontext.org/famous-flower-paintings/.
Thomas Carr Howe, Jr., Assistant Director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Exhibition of Flower Paintings from the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day. San Francisco: California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1931. Exhibition catalogue.