Vase of Flowers (1916): Art, History and Details

Vase of Flowers (1916) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916).

The work and its context

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

Inspired by Cleveland’s groundbreaking acquisitions of Odilon Redon’s artworks during the 1920s, local philanthropist and collector Leonard C. Hanna Jr. purchased this luminous pastel of a floral still life in 1937. Hanna acquired it from Jacques Seligmann, a dealer based in New York City and Paris who was fundamental in bringing 19th-century French art to American audiences. In 1939, Hanna loaned the pastel to the New York World’s Fair, where it represented Redon’s work. Those who saw it there were attracted to the vivid color and timeless subject, which preoccupied the artist at the end of his life.

Object facts

• Title: Vase of Flowers
• Date: 1916
• Creator attribution: Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916)
• Culture: France, 20th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: pastel
• Dimensions: Sheet: 84.1 x 58 cm (33 1/8 x 22 13/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1958.46

A detail from the museum

Redon was inspired to depict flowers after meeting the botanist Armand Clavaud, a cataloguer of plant species in the artist's native region of Bordeaux

Collection credit

Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• Pach, Walter. Catalogue of European & American Paintings, 1500-1900. Exh. Cat. New York: Masterpieces of Art, 1940.
• Loan Exhibition of Masterpieces of Painting. Exh. Cat. Montreal: Museum of Fine Arts, 1942.
• Odilon Redon, 1840-1916. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951.

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.