Fleurs des champs (Coquelicot, marguerite et bleuet)

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's 1874 painting of field flowers — poppies, daisies, and cornflowers — is an unusual work from the sculptor best known for monumental commissions including La Danse for the Paris Opéra. Carpeaux produced paintings alongside his sculptures throughout his career, but floral subjects are rare in his output and suggest a private, intimate mode far removed from his public heroic work. The three flowers he chose — coquelicot (poppy), marguerite (daisy), bleuet (cornflower) — are the classic wildflowers of the French countryside, a quintessentially modest subject treated with what must be quiet affection. The Petit Palais holds this as evidence of the full range of his practice.

Carpeaux's floral painting would likely deploy the direct, spontaneous handling that characterizes his sketches and studies rather than the labored finish of his sculptural surfaces. The loosely observed wildflowers probably sit in an informal arrangement, the paint application reflecting their natural informality. The three national-color flowers — red, white, blue — may carry gentle patriotic resonance.