Flowers and Bird

Gauguin's 'Flowers and Bird' (1886) belongs to his still life subjects from the Pont-Aven period — a combination of natural objects that engaged his interest in the decorative possibilities of the still life format alongside its formal challenges. The bird within the flower subject expanded the conventional still life vocabulary, and Gauguin's treatment would bring his developing formal sensibility to this relatively traditional subject. By 1886 he was already moving toward the Synthetist approach that would transform all his subject matter.

Gauguin's 1886 flowers and bird composition shows his transitional handling — the Impressionist attention to color and light modified by his growing preference for stronger compositional structure and more deliberate color relationships. The bird as an unusual element within the flower subject creates a formal and narrative tension that his maturing approach was well-suited to address. His palette shows the increasing richness and saturation of his pre-Synthetist period.