Artwork
Still Life with Flowers, Fan, and Pearls
Still Life with Flowers, Fan, and Pearls is an oil painting by the Realist artist Édouard Manet. It dates from 1861 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
In 19th-century still life conventions, peonies commonly signified prosperity, romance, and feminine beauty, and pearls evoked purity and luxury.
The painting arranges a tightly grouped bouquet of flowers, an open hand fan, and a strand of pearls against a dark, neutral ground. According to the cataloguing data, the depicted objects are identified as a hand fan, flowers, pearls, and peonies (Paeonia). The peonies form the lush floral centerpiece, while the fan and pearls are positioned as accompanying attributes.
In 19th-century still life conventions, peonies commonly signified prosperity, romance, and feminine beauty, and pearls evoked purity and luxury. The folding fan, a fashionable accessory of the period, reinforces associations with elegance and the boudoir. Together, these elements construct a refined, decorative composition that celebrates material beauty and sensory pleasure rather than carrying a hidden allegorical program.
Technique & Style
The work is painted in oil on canvas, a medium Manet favored for its luminosity and malleability, allowing subtle layering and glazing to render the lustre of pearls and the translucency of petals. The composition's handling balances broad, confident brushstrokes with delicate passages, particularly in the rendering of petals and the satin fan, which reveal a controlled yet spontaneous touch. Stylistically, the still life merges Realism with nascent Impressionist tendencies, evident in the sketch-like finish and the focus on light and surface texture rather than linear definition.
The vertical format and close cropping heighten the immediacy of the arrangement, while the subdued palette, punctuated by the vivid reds and whites of the flowers, anchors the scene in observed reality.
History & Provenance
The work was painted by Édouard Manet in 1861, as indicated by the artist's date on the canvas and confirmed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's records. The painting's early provenance remains undocumented in primary sources, and no record of a specific commission has been identified. The work's creation aligns with Manet's early still-life production, executed during a period when he explored still-life subjects alongside contemporary genre scenes.
Still Life with Flowers, Fan, and Pearls is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, accessioned as 61.194. The painting entered the museum's collection in 1961 through the Rogers Fund.
Overview
This oil painting, titled "Still Life with Flowers, Fan, and Pearls," presents a modest arrangement of domestic items. The composition features a vase holding two flowers, alongside a folded fan, a string of pearls, and a piece of fruit. The artist employs oil paint to render these objects, creating a quiet and contemplative scene that invites close observation of its components.
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.
