Yellow Roses in a Vase

A bouquet of yellow roses is set on a marble table against a dark ground. The fl owers are shown full-blown, just at the moment when their lush, open petals have begun to drop. The intense drama of the painting results from the contrast between the minimalist elegance of the composition and the thickly painted roses at its center. “Yellow Roses in a Vase “ was painted during Gustave Caillebotte's first serious engagement with the genre of still life. Between 1881 and 1883, he painted more than thirty still lifes, reflecting a renewed interest in the genre among several artists of the impressionist circle, most notably Claude Monet, who shared Caillebotte's Paris studio in 1882. “Yellow Roses in a Vase “ remained with Caillebotte throughout his life and was purchased after his death in 1894 by Edgar Degas, who collected the works of his fellow artists with great acumen, as had Caillebotte himself.