Vase of Flowers
- Artist: Claude Monet
- Date: 1881
- 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 “Vase of Flowers” by Claude Monet. Painted in 1881, it sits on a small canvas, the medium he chose for many of his early floral studies. In the early 1880s Monet was devoting a lot of time to ambitious still lifes, and this particular bouquet of mallows—those soft, wild flowers—proved more challenging than others. He actually set the work aside, only to revisit it almost forty years later. That late‑stage revisiting is visible in the paint: some petals and leaves bear the texture of over‑worked, long‑dried layers that he brushed over to refine the scene.
When Monet finally signed and sold the painting around 1920, it was a testament to his persistence. Notice how the ceramic vase is tucked slightly off‑centre, and the angle from which Monet views the table and blossoms is unusually high. This perspective gives the impression that the table and flowers are gently tilting forward, as if they’re dissolving into the air. The whole composition feels almost dreamlike, hinting at the way Monet played with light and form, blurring the boundaries between still life and impressionistic vision.
See it in person
Vase of Flowers 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.
