Roses in a Vase (c. 1890): Art, History and Details

Roses in a Vase (c. 1890) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The palette Renoir used to depict the seven roses in this still life ranges from various shades of red to warm whites, light yellows, and pinks. The artist declared, "'Painting flowers lets my brain rest. It does not cause the same tension of spirit as when I face a model. When I paint flowers, I put down tones, I boldly try values, without having to worry about losing a canvas.'" He was particularly fond of roses, whose full, rounded shapes he likened to the female body. In 1861, Renoir met Claude Monet (1840–1926) and later shared a studio with him. Monet became an important influence on Renoir's art, as can be seen here in the rapid brush strokes, thinly scuffled background, and buildup of paint (impasto) in the blooms.

Object facts

• Title: Roses in a Vase
• Date: c. 1890
• Creator attribution: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on fabric
• Dimensions: Unframed: 25.5 x 34 cm (10 1/16 x 13 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1941.14

A detail from the museum

Renoir was an excellent singer who wanted to be a musician, but for financial reasons left school at age thirteen to work as an apprentice painter in a porcelain factory.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon

Further reading listed by the museum

• Flint, Ralph. "The Private Collection of Josef Stransky." Art News 19 (May 16, 1931): 87-88.
• Milliken, William. "Silver Jubilee Exhibition." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 28, no.6 (June 1941): 88-108
• Allen Memorial Art Museum. "Exhibition of Still Life Paintings, Seventeenth to Nineteenth Century." Bulletin 2, no. 1Oberlin, OH: Dept. of Fine Arts of Oberlin College, (1945):8.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.