The Posy

The Posy, painted in 1900, depicts a young woman holding or arranging a small bunch of flowers—a posy—in the combination of classical setting and intimate feminine subject matter that characterized Godward's most commercially successful work. The flower subject gave him the opportunity to combine his archaeological precision in rendering the classical setting with the delicate chromatic challenges of depicting fresh flowers, whose soft colors contrasted with the cool marble and stone of his settings. The posy also served as a prop that animated the figure's hands and created a focus for her attention.

The flowers of the posy are rendered with botanical attention within the broader painterly treatment of the canvas, their individual petals and stems distinguishable against the figure's drapery. Godward's technique of using the small flowers as a chromatic accent against the cooler tones of marble and classical dress demonstrates his compositional sophistication within a conservative pictorial tradition.