Les anémones

Les Anémones (1900), at the Nantes Museum of Arts, is a bouquet of anemones — the vivid red and purple flowers that appear in early spring across Mediterranean and temperate European gardens. Renoir's flower paintings of 1900 reflect his growing residence in the south of France, where the flowering seasons were longer and the palette more intense than in Paris. Anemones presented particular chromatic challenges: their deep, saturated reds and purples are colours that can easily become flat and crude, and Renoir's handling modulates them through careful tonal variation to prevent any deadness of surface.

The anemones' strong red and purple hues dominate the palette, but Renoir moderates their intensity through reflected lights and shadow passages that introduce complementary colours. Green stem-foliage and the lighter background provide visual relief from the dense chromatic concentration of the blooms.