Roses in a Vase

Roses tumble loosely from a small vase in this flower piece of about 1890, painted during the period when Renoir had turned from the broken touch of high Impressionism toward a fuller, more decorative handling. Flowers, which he had painted throughout his life, became one of the few subjects he pursued freely in his later years, and the warm masses of the blooms show the sensuousness that endeared his work to collectors. It reflects his renewed interest near the decade’s end in surfaces rounded by light rather than dissolved into stroke.