Dahlia

Lise Cloquet, also known as Anne-Louise Cloquet, was a French botanical painter who picked up drawing from her father, illustrator and engraver Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Cloquet. Lise’s flower paintings are evidence of a wealthy family background; painting flowers was thought to be a suitable pastime for wealthy women because of its more effeminate qualities. Cloquet’s works thus exhibit an interest, primarily, in artistic details rather than scientific ones.
Cloquet’s Dahlia, like most of her work, is taken out of context. It features vivid warm colors, drawing attention to the bloom of the flower. Included in her album of 32 paintings of flowers, it is typical in its style and composition.
Seemingly a Dahlia ‘Pooh’, this Collarette Dahlia is one over over 20,000 different varieties of Dahlia. Named in honor of Swedish botanist A. Dahl, the flowers were studied in Mexico by Europeans in the late 16th century. They were imported into Europe in the in the late 18th century, mere decades before Cloquet painted them.
The vivid colors of the bloom exhibit Cloquet’s interest in capturing the enticing beauty of flowers, mimicking the very appeal that compelled her to illustrate the Dahlia. Cloquet captures the slender nature of the flowers stem alone. Her primary interest in the flower’s bloom typifies her artistic interest in flowers.