Spring Flowers

A lush bundle of spring blooms rises from a rustic pot, their pinks and whites set against a dark ground. Claude Monet painted the still life in 1864, still a twenty-something student on the Normandy coast before the Impressionist label existed, when flower pieces were a staple that let a young painter test his hand. The picture shows him already breaking with the tight finish of academic painting — the loose, expressive strokes and fresh color of the flowers look forward to the open-air vividness that would soon define the movement he helped launch.