A Sublime Pleasure

Vase of flowers, 1881-82
MONET, Claude-Oscar, 1840–1926
The Samuel Courtauld Trust, Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, London

Between 1878 and 1882 Monet concentrated extensively on still lifes. These included a number of particularly large flower compositions which, according to his letters, caused him considerable difficulty. Vase of Flowers, which shows an arrangement of wild mallow, was not completed for sale during this period. Instead, Monet kept it in his studio, eventually signing and selling it in the last years of his life. The painting had been with two dealers and Samuel Courtauld bought it in 1923. The canvas appears in photographs of the interior of Monet's house at Giverny.