Vase of Irises

Painted in 1912 and held in the Hermitage, 'Vase of Irises' belongs to the remarkable group of flower paintings Matisse produced during his Moroccan period, when his colour sense was being intensified by direct contact with North African light and botanical abundance. Irises with their complex petal structure and strong colour range from blue to purple-white offered him a particular formal challenge: how to suggest the flower's intricate form through simplified, colouristically bold notation. Flower paintings from this phase served as intensive laboratories for the chromatic experiments he was simultaneously conducting in his figure and interior compositions. The Hermitage holds many of the Moroccan-period works that entered via the Shchukin collection, making it possible to see these floral studies in dialogue with the major figure paintings of the same period.

Matisse handles the iris petals with confident, abbreviated brushstrokes that suggest form without describing it botanically. The colour relationship between flowers and background is the primary concern; the vase or container below anchors the composition in a more resolved passage.