Flowers in a Rococo Vase

Flowers in a Rococo Vase at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, painted around 1876, shows Cézanne engaging with the tradition of decorative flower painting against its baroque and rococo antecedents. The rococo vase of the title is presumably an ornate piece from the Jas de Bouffan or a borrowed prop — its elaborate form providing a counterpoint to the informal arrangement of flowers above it. Cézanne's flower paintings occupy a quiet corner of his production but reveal his engagement with the still-life tradition he shared with Chardin, whose influence on his understanding of form and color was profound.

The contrast between the ornate, sculptural form of the rococo vase and the organic irregularity of the flowers above it structures the composition around competing principles of order and natural abundance. Cézanne treats both vase and flowers with roughly equivalent attention, building up form through varied strokes rather than smooth modeling.