Mums, Chrysanths

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.
Chrysanthemums, flowers cultivated for thousands of years by mankind, were first introduced to Europe in 1789, in France. While the Chrysanthemum may seem commonplace to modern viewers, it would have been fairly exotic to painters like Cloquet who depicted it only decades after its introduction from Asia.
In what is perhaps Cloquet’s most beautiful work, this Chrysanthemum, a member of the Asteraceae family and classified with a “single” type bloom, beautifully features the daisy-type flower’s ray florets (often referred to as petals) which radiate from the center of the bloom. The painting typifies Cloquet’s interest in considering flora in isolation from their surroundings; she paints only the flower, in this case. Unlike much of her work, though, this painting is unusually set against a darker, gray paper, as opposed to her more typical use of parchment-like material. Her use of a darker background is characteristic of Cloquet’s interest in utilizing contrast to her advantage. Here, the white petals are shaded with gray tones rather than colorful ones, contributing to the visual impact of the starkly white petals.
Cloquet artistically renders the leaves of the flower, capturing their waxy quality with her meticulous coloring and shading. The intricately overlapping units in the flower head demonstrate Cloquet’s proficiency in capturing meticulous detail. The shadowing of the hundreds of florets adds depth to the subject, a feature common to her lifelike illustrations.