L’Azalée rose

A potted azalea in full pink bloom stands against a cool grey-blue wall, each blossom drawn with the broad, soft pressure of a pastel crayon, the pot and the foliage kept deliberately simple so the colour carries the picture. This is one of the floral still lifes Georges Hugo, the painter grandson of Victor Hugo, produced in the mid-1890s — quiet studies of flowers and plants that show the flattening, decorative touch of Manet and Japanese prints. The pastel is held in the Maison de Victor Hugo – Hauteville House.