Anemones (Anémones)

Anemones (Anémones), 1907, is one of the floral still lifes that occupied Renoir increasingly at Cagnes as his physical capacity for ambitious figure compositions diminished while his desire to work with pure colour at close range intensified. Anemones — with their intense purple-red petals and dark, button-like centres — were his preferred flower subject in the Cagnes years, chosen for their chromatic richness and their availability in the Mediterranean spring. His flower painting connects him explicitly to the French decorative tradition he had absorbed as a young porcelain painter: the skill of rendering flowers freshly, with direct sensory appeal, without the laborious modelling that the academic tradition demanded, was one he had developed since his teenage years. Compared to Fantin-Latour's carefully observed floral still lifes, which were hugely popular with collectors, Renoir's flowers are more freely handled and more openly about the pleasure of colour rather than botanical exactitude. The Barnes Foundation's group of his floral works is among the most complete documentation of this late production.

The anemone petals are built up with loaded, directed strokes of intense red-purple, pink, and white, with the stamens and centres noted quickly in dark, precise marks. Renoir's flower painting is deliberately loose and gestural, prioritising chromatic vitality over botanical accuracy.