Lilies in a Jar
- Artist: Matthew Arnold Bracy Smith
- Date: 1914
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
- Collection record: The Courtauld Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Lilies in a Jar” by Matthew Arnold Bracy Smith. Picture an early‑20th‑century oil on canvas, painted in 1914 while Smith was staying in the artists’ colony of Grez‑sur‑Loing, just a few years after leaving Matisse’s school in Paris. That brief but intense exposure to Matisse’s palette and approach left a lasting mark on him.
In this work, Smith strips the scene down to its essential shapes. The lilies are rendered in simple, bold outlines, yet the colors are vivid—crimson, gold, and emerald pops against a muted background. You can almost feel the heat of a summer afternoon reflected in the glass of the jar. It’s not a meticulous, realistic study; it’s a deliberate simplification that gives the flowers a life of their own.
Smith himself said his goal was “to create something as living as nature, so that it itself may continue to live.” That ambition is clear: the brushwork breathes movement, the color bursts with vitality, and the composition invites you to linger on the ordinary and find something extraordinary within it.
So, as you stand before “Lilies in a Jar,” notice how the artist balances restraint and exuberance, capturing a fleeting moment yet giving it a timeless pulse.
See it in person
Lilies in a Jar hangs in The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
