6"x4" oil on raymar panel. Edouard Manet never painted poppy pods. At least, I don't think he did. Whether he did or not is not the point, the point is that an artist may look to him for inspiration when confronted with subject matter like this. I didn't conjure his ghost (tried it before - didn't work and I don't speak French anyway), but I remembered those wonderful flower paintings Manet did at the end of his life. Life ebbing, he was still on top of his game, painting complex bouquets by employing wonderful abstractions. I sometimes think of his work when faced with things like those vicious poppy stems going down through that complex bottle neck.
If you can get your hands on one, I suggest buying the book, "The Last Flowers of Manet" by Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge. It is a thin, but wonderful book with great pictures of sixteen of those paintings.Posted February 2, 2010
sold • private collection west hollywood, ca
