A long-lost artwork?

Vallayer-Coster kept the painting in her personal collection until her death when it was sold at auction to a family member after her husband’s passing—and then never seen publicly again. For centuries, its whereabouts were unknown until in 2022 the painting reappeared. A family had kept the canvas for generations, unaware of its significance. Remarkably the work was in almost pristine condition, even complete with its original frame.

Fresh flowers

Vallayer-Coster’s painting is so lush it’s almost hard to focus your eye. The opulent bouquet features more than a dozen different flowers, from lavender hydrangeas to red poppies. All are at the peak of freshness.

Gold and garlands

The alabaster vase builds the feeling of abundance. Rich details adorn its rim: a garland of fruits and flowers and a bronze child satyr (half man, half goat). This imagery alludes to Bacchus, the Greek god of fruitfulness and wine.

Modern vs. ancient

Twombly was inspired by Greek culture, creating a modern vision of the ancient world and reworking it into a new form of visual expression.

The ideal screen

At the start of the 1960s, Twombly began using increasingly large canvases, almost as big as cinema screens, which were "the ideal shields" for hurling splashes, marks, threads, and lumps onto the white background.

Abstract expressionism

The artist translates the very action of abstract American expressionism into this work, both syllabically and ideographically.