Mixed Flowers with Box and Pearls

Martin Johnson Heade produced lush and detailed panels of tropical flora and fauna, as a result of his trips to South America. "Mixed Flowers with a Box of Pearls," by contrast, belongs fully to the Victorian domestic interior. A vase, featuring a figure holding up its stem, is topped with a floral arrangement containing roses, heliotrope, carnations, and azaleas.. A string of shimmering pearls creeps its way out of a decorative box, near to the transparent silk that rests atop the burnt-crimson table covering. Collectively, Heade details a series of disparate textures in this axiomatic mid-century nature morte, or still life.