Still Life with Peonies
1884
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 59.7 x 73 cm (23 1/2 x 28 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Accession Number
1995.47.10
Art Historical Context
Paul Gauguin's * Life with Peonies*1884) invites visitors into the artist's early experimentation with color and form. This intimate oil on canvas painting, measuring 23½ × 28¾ inches, captures the voluptuous blooms of peonies favorite subject in 19th-century still lifes symbolizing spring's abundance and fleeting beauty. Housed in the National Gallery Art's collection, generously gifted by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, it exemplifies the medium's versatility, allowing Gauguin's loose, vibrant brushstrokes to evoke texture and luminosity. Created during Gauguin's Paris years, before his radical d...
About the Artist
Paul Gauguin · 1848–1903
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was a French Post-Impressionist painter whose bold experiments with color, form, and subject matter made him one of the most influential figures in the transition from 19th-century art to modernism. His rejection of European civilization for the perceived authenticity of 'primitive' cultures established an archetype of artistic exile that continues to resonate. Gauguin's ...