Crocuses

Sina Mesdag-van Houten's 'Crocuses' (1887) is a spring flower subject — the crocus as among the earliest flowers of the European spring, its appearance through the last of the winter's cold making it a traditional symbol of hope and renewal. Her engagement with these specific early spring flowers placed her in the tradition of seasonal flower subjects, the crocus's specific character (its small size, its distinctive form, the vivid purple or yellow or white of its petals) creating a different formal challenge from the more elaborate roses or chrysanthemums.

Sina Mesdag-van Houten renders the crocuses with the observational precision and sensitivity to flower form that characterized her still-life work — the specific small scale and distinctive three-petaled form of the crocus, the quality of the spring light on the petals, and the arrangement that showed the flowers to their best advantage. Her handling of the flowers' colors against the appropriate setting (perhaps moss, grass, or a simple neutral ground) gives the spring subject its seasonal character.