Artwork
Peonies
Peonies is an oil painting by the Realist artist Édouard Manet. It dates from 1864 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
A vase of pink and white peonies stands on a table, a single white bloom fallen beside it, all set against a dark ground that sharpens the colors. Édouard Manet painted it in 1864, using light and shadow to give the flowers volume and texture, simple and elegant.
Technique & Style
The composition employs a vertical orientation suited to the upright vase and the cascading peony blooms and foliage, treated as a tightly arranged still life.
Manet's Peonies (1864) is executed in oil paint on canvas, a standard support for his still-life practice of the period. The work is modest in scale, measuring approximately 59 by 34 cm, consistent with the intimate cabinet-painting format Manet favored for floral subjects. The composition employs a vertical orientation suited to the upright vase and the cascading peony blooms and foliage, treated as a tightly arranged still life.
The handling reflects Manet's characteristic directness, with the medium of oil paint allowing both opaque structural passages for the vase and leaves and more fluid, suggestive touches for the petals. The painting is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where its condition has been preserved as part of the institutional holdings.
History & Provenance
Édouard Manet's 1864 oil painting titled Peonies is currently held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The work, executed on canvas and measuring approximately 59 by 35 centimeters, depicts a still life arrangement featuring a vase, leaves, and peony flowers. While the provided sources confirm the artwork's location and institutional ownership, they do not supply a specific inventory or accession number for the piece.
Furthermore, the available documentation contains no details regarding the painting's exhibition history, leaving its public display record unrecorded in these references.
Overview
Édouard Manet's oil painting, Peonies, was completed in 1864. This still life composition features a vibrant arrangement of the titular flowers, rendered with oil paint on canvas. The work exemplifies Manet's engagement with contemporary subjects and his distinctive approach to painting.
It is currently housed in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it represents a notable example of his mid-career output.
Subject & Meaning
The painting centers on a ceramic vase overflowing with peonies, presenting a spectrum of pink and white blossoms. These flowers are arranged on a tabletop, alongside a single white bloom that rests detached on the surface. This intimate still life captures the transient beauty of the flowers, inviting contemplation of their delicate forms and varied hues within a focused, domestic setting.
Artist & collection
Artist
Édouard Manet was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.
