''Vase of Flowers'' is an oil painting by the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

artist

Gwen John Gwendolen Mary John (22 June 1876 – 18 September 1939) was a Welsh artist who worked in France for most of her career. Her paintings, mainly portraits of anonymous female sitters, are rendered in a range of closely related tones. Although s ...

(1876–1939).

Description

The undated work was painted in the early part of the 20th century. It was donated to the

National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales ( cy, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru), Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million ...

by the Contemporary Art Society of Wales (CASW) in 1957. The subject of the painting is a vase of pink and white flowers on a wooden table with a few white petals falling onto the table. A pink cloth is draped over a table in the background. It is an oil on board painting using the style of dry painting with an impasto brush. It may have been painted in her lounge.

Analysis

Gwen John's biographer Cecily Langdale says the painting probably dates from the late 1910s. A similar, earlier painting by John called ''Flowers'' is now held by

Manchester Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three ...

. John's biographer Mary Taubman describes this painting as a "classical and conceptual image and has the appearance of being a considered and reflective development on the original."

Europeana 280

In April 2016 the painting was selected as one of Wales' ten iconic paintings as part of the Europeana art project{{Cite web, url=http://pro.europeana.eu/pressrelease/europeana-280-art-from-the-28-countries-of-europe, title=Europeana 280 Blog, access-date=14 April 2016, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501013426/http://pro.europeana.eu/pressrelease/europeana-280-art-from-the-28-countries-of-europe, archive-date=1 May 2016, url-status=dead, df=dmy-all

References

Vase of Flowers
on Art UK website 1910s paintings Paintings by Gwen John Still life paintings