Flower of the Fields

This melancholy woman, seated in a landscape and holding freshly gathered flowers, cultivates mystery. The precision with which the painter has depicted her face could suggest it is a portrait. However, his model’s identity remains unknown and her features seem both realistic and idealized.

A closer look at this young woman’s clothes reveals that the drapery is much more reminiscent of the portraits painted by Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael in the late 15th and early 16th centuries than of the garments of a 19th-century woman. This reference to the art of the Renaissance is reinforced by the choice of a wooden support (rather than canvas), following the example of those same painters long ago.

In the distant background, the mountainous landscapes of Bugey open the depth of the space towards the Alps. Surrounding the woman, flowers depicted with meticulous care recall the flower-painting tradition in Lyon in the 19th century. Unlike most of his colleagues, here, the painter prefers wild species to cultivated ones. Behind the apparent simplicity of a naturalistic image lies a different intention on the part of artist: perhaps an allusion to the ancient goddess Flora, but also an invitation to consider the passing of time. In fact, the flowers in the field, like the butterflies that the young woman is watching, are ephemeral and an awareness of that destiny bathes the picture in melancholy.