Flowers in a Crystal Vase

Edouard Manet

Contemporary-Art.org
Keywords: FlowersCrystalVase

Work Overview

Flowers in a Crystal Vase
Édouard Manet
ca. 1882
oil on canvas
32.7 x 24.5 cm (12 7/8 x 9 5/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection


The small paintings now have the lightness and softness of the watercolours of the admirable letters he sent to his women friends (of which some twenty are on view). These qualities are also to be found in the bouquets painted in spring of 1882, with which the exhibition comes to a close.


The flowers stand in crystal vases which permit us to see the tangle of stems as a kind of "backstage" view of the chromatic visions that bloom above the narrow neck of the vase. They proved to be Manet's farewell as he was to die a few months later.