Floris Verster, Still life with peonies, oil on canvas 135 × 202 cm (53.1 × 79.5 in) 1889, Rijksmuseum

I clearly remember the first time I saw this painting in the Rijksmuseum. Before the renovation it was on view near the Nightwatch of Rembrandt. Just around the corner. Tourist walked past it on their way to Vermeer. I truly adored this painting. Love at first sight.

There is a wonderful tradition of Dutch 17th century Still life painting. Huge flower portraits show the skills of the artists. The flowers are strong, perfect, pristine. But the  painting by Verster was vulnerable and powerful at the same time. The  flowers don’t rise up to the sky. They are already start to fade. Yet – also due to the large size of the painting – it felt like they knew no shame.
They bloom. Even in their stage of transforming from their bright beautiful vibrant outer appearance to inevitable change.

Floris Verster,  peonies, oil on canvas , 1888 Rijksmuseum de Lak

Though it’s not a very good photo I like to show this picture because, as the story goes, Verster painted his peonies against a light background first. But Verster’s painter friend Jan Toorop advised him to paint a dark background because it would change the atmosphere of the painting.

EXPERIMENT
Reflect on what this painting would look like with a different background.

Try it out for yourself.
– Draw two flowers.
– One with a light background (use very thin watercolor, with lots of water)
– One with more thickly spread watercolor paint (like dark green or dark blue)
What happens to your flower?

Piet Mondrian, Chrysanthemum,  1908–09, Charcoal on paper,  25.4 x 28.7 cm (10 x 11 1/4 inches ), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Mondrian/Holzman Trust

For more than a decade after graduating from art school in 1897, Piet Mondrian created naturalistic drawings and paintings that reflect stylistic influences like Dutch Impressionism and Symbolism. During this period he  created more than a hundred pictures of flowers.

Reflecting years later on his attraction to the subject, he wrote, “I enjoyed painting flowers, not bouquets, but a single flower at a time, in order that I might better express its plastic structure.”
The heavy crooked line of Chrysanthemum shows how Mondrian’s was influenced. Specifically by the work of Vincent van Gogh. In 1909 Mondrian became interested in Theosophy,  a philosophical mysticism that seeks to disclose the concealed essences of reality. He wrote: “I too find flowers beautiful in their exterior beauty, yet there is hidden within a deeper beauty.”

 

Piet Mondrian,  watercolor on paper,  25 x 19.5 cm, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands

 

EXPERIMENT
Try to look at your flowers through the eyes of Mondriaan or Verster, or any other painter you like.
What would Matisse see? Or Georgia O’Keeffe?