Bouquet (Vase with Two Handles)

Painted in 1907 and held in the Hermitage, 'Bouquet (Vase with Two Handles)' belongs to the period immediately after Fauvism when Matisse was consolidating the radical colour breakthroughs of 1905–06 into a more sustained pictorial practice. Flower paintings occupied him throughout his career as a genre that permitted pure colour experimentation without the narrative expectations that attended figure subjects. By 1907 he was also thinking seriously about the decorative arts — Islamic tiles, Persian carpets, Chinese ceramics — and the vase form itself carries this interest. The two handles of the vase provide a structural counterpoint to the upward surge of the flowers. The Hermitage's Matisse holdings from this period are unmatched; the Shchukin collection concentrated an extraordinary number of works from his most experimental years in a single location.

Matisse renders the flowers with an energetic, varied brushwork that contrasts with the more regular handling of the vase below. The palette is characteristically bold, with flower colours chosen for their relational impact rather than botanical accuracy.