Vase with Carnations

Painted in 1886 at the beginning of his Paris period, this vase of carnations shows Van Gogh practicing the Impressionist floral still life while developing his own approach to color and touch. Flower subjects offered him a contained laboratory for experimenting with complementary color combinations—carnations presented possibilities for pink against green, red against grey—without the atmospheric complications of outdoor painting. The canvas is now in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, whose collection includes several early Van Gogh Paris works.

The carnation blooms are built up in repeated short strokes that follow the ruffled form of the petals, a technique that shows Impressionist influence in its rejection of smooth blending. The vase is rendered with more conventional precision, providing a stable base from which the animated flower strokes can radiate outward.