Study of a Plant, Possibly Thistle (1862): Art, History and Details

Study of a Plant, Possibly Thistle (1862) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Léon Bonvin (French, 1834–1866).

The work and its context

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

Neglected within his own time, the watercolors of Bonvin have only come to be fully appreciated in the late 20th century. An artist with little formal training, Bonvin earned a living working in his family’s inn in Vaugirard, on the outskirts of Paris. The landscape near his home and studies of the inn’s garden became his themes.

Object facts

• Title: Study of a Plant, Possibly Thistle
• Date: 1862
• Creator attribution: Léon Bonvin (French, 1834–1866)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: Watercolor and pen and brown ink with white heightening
• Dimensions: Sheet: 25.3 x 29.5 cm (9 15/16 x 11 5/8 in.); Secondary Support: 25.3 x 29.5 cm (9 15/16 x 11 5/8 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1980.236

A detail from the museum

This watercolor was made after the year of Léon Bonvin's marriage, a time when he was increasingly trying to make a living from his art.

Collection credit

Bequest of Noah L. Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1980.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 6 (June 1981): 163–219.
• Guichané, Maud, Gabriel P. Weisberg, Léon Bonvin, Jo Briggs, Ger Luijten, and Michèle Quentin. Drawn to the Everyday: Léon Bonvin 1834-1866 : Catalogue Raisonné. Paris : Fondation Custodia, 2022.

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.