Roses and Statuette

Gauguin's 'Roses and Statuette' (1889) combines cut flowers with a sculptural object — the statuette providing both formal contrast with the organic roses and a cultural dimension to what might otherwise be a conventional flower subject. Gauguin's interest in sculptural forms reflected his own growing practice as a sculptor, and his placement of small carved or ceramic figures alongside painted objects was a way of asserting the dimensional and material qualities he valued in art against the purely pictorial tradition of Impressionist still life.

Gauguin's still life arranges the roses and statuette with the deliberate compositional intention that characterized his mature Synthetist approach. The flowers' organic forms contrast with the statuette's compact, three-dimensional solidity, and his treatment of the two subjects through his bold outlining and relatively flat color creates an interesting tension between the living, fragile flowers and the permanent cultural object. His palette is warm and decorative.