Fleurs

Painted in 1869 and held at the Musée Fabre, this floral arrangement belongs to the series of ambitious flower paintings Bazille produced in the late 1860s, culminating in the peony compositions of 1870. The painting reflects his sustained engagement with the French floral still-life tradition—from Fantin-Latour, whose carefully composed flower paintings were admired across Paris, to the more painterly freedom of Courbet's floral work. Bazille's floral paintings are characterised by a directness and chromatic confidence that places them among the strongest of his non-figurative work.

The arrangement is rendered with the loose, assured brushwork Bazille brought to his best still lifes—capturing the essential forms and colour relationships of cut flowers without losing the sense of freshness and light. The palette is carefully varied to convey the different bloom types within the arrangement.