Flowers in a Rococo Vase

Flowers in a Rococo Vase at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, painted around 1876, shows Cézanne placing his flower subject within a specific decorative tradition. The rococo vase — presumably from the collection of domestic objects he kept at Jas de Bouffan — was an eighteenth-century piece whose ornate sculptural form had been created within the very tradition Cézanne was most consciously departing from. His decision to paint it alongside informally arranged flowers creates a dialogue between the ordered, hierarchical aesthetics of the ancien régime and the more democratic, observational approach of Post-Impressionism. Chardin had also painted within the French still-life tradition while departing from its most elaborate conventions; Cézanne's engagement with the rococo vase was similarly ambivalent. The National Gallery's strong collection of his work allows this modest canvas to be seen alongside the more ambitious still lifes of his mature period, showing the continuity of his preoccupations across different scales and subjects.

The contrast between the ornate, sculptural form of the rococo vase and the organic irregularity of the flowers above it structures the composition around competing principles of order and natural abundance. Cézanne treats both vase and flowers with roughly equivalent attention, building up form through varied strokes rather than smooth modeling.