Flowers in a Black Vase

Odilon Redon

c. 1909–1910

Pastel on paper

Dallas Museum of Art

Flowers in a Black Vase challenges in many ways the conventional still life. The vase at right is defined by an elegant curve that establishes its profile amid the cascading yellow, blue, and white flowers flowing across the surface of the paper. The work depicts no interior; there is, for instance, no trace of a tabletop. Rather, an amorphous and luminescent environment suggests simultaneously still life and landscape, or perhaps more accurately—because of the soft, velvety surface—a dreamscape. Flowers in a Black Vase challenges in many ways the conventional still life. The vase at right is defined by an elegant curve that establi