Max Carlier

MAX CARLIER (1872–1938).
"Still Life with Flowers."
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 80 x 119.5 / 98 x 137 cm.

A large still life of flowers and fruit, with an exuberant composition and warm colors, in which a voluminous bouquet, arranged in a dark vase, spills out toward the viewer. Peonies or roses with curled petals predominate, in shades of cream and pink with orange centers, with red and gold clusters of long-stemmed flowers and the small mauve daisies on the right-hand side being hallmarks of the scene. At the base of the vase, on a large bluish-green cabbage leaf, peaches, plums, and pears are piled up alongside clusters of white and black grapes, while petals, loose seeds, and dry leaves fall around them onto a grassy ground.

Max Carlier (1872–1938) was a French painter who specialized in still lifes of flowers and fruit, and whose career spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His canvases, featuring abundant bouquets and ripe fruit against dark backgrounds, were highly popular among the bourgeoisie, who decorated their dining rooms and living rooms with such works.

Floral still lifes enjoyed particular popularity in the second half of the 19th century, when the rise of gardens, greenhouses, and the cut-flower trade made them a very popular genre, linked to domestic taste and discreet luxury. Painters of this genre drew upon the great 17th-century Dutch and Flemish tradition, with its penchant for abundance and the subtle symbolism of transience, which is hinted at here in the fallen petals and withered leaves.