Spring (c.1780) by Mary MoserRoyal Academy of Arts
This is Mary Moser’s oil painting of a vase of flowers, painted around 1780. Let's take a closer look at the flowers and the artist's career.
In the vase are tulips...
...narcissi...
...auricula...
...and peonies – among other flowers.
Moser’s vase is all full of British plants that flower in the spring. Celebrated 17th-century Dutch artists created vases of impossible luxury by gathering species from multiple continents and of various blooming seasons in one painting, but Moser chose to faithfully reflect a British springtime in a careful observation of nature.
Moser got her early artistic training from her father, the artist George Michael Moser. Opportunities for girls to attend art school were limited, so aspiring female artists were often taught at home by family members. Since women weren’t allowed to study the human form by taking life drawing classes, it was difficult for them to make more highly regarded paintings that featured people. As a result, many women became highly skilled flower painters. That said, Moser could also dash off an impressive portrait or mythological scene – but it was flowers she always returned to.
The academic Shahidha Bari wrote of Moser’s flower paintings: “There is a melancholy to cut flowers... They bloom quickly and die continually, their exuberant illusion of life rudely dispelled over the course of a week… That moment of overripeness, the fulsome, florid, blowsy display that comes just before the decay... Mary Moser certainly knew it.” In this painting, the wilting flowers in the background quietly hint at the decay soon to come.
Spring is currently hanging in the RA's Collection Gallery, which you can visit for free, or you can take a guided tour online.
