Painting Collection Nicolas De Staël Flowers in a Red Vase (1914—1955) The subject of this painting by Nicolas de Staël is referenced in the title—Flowers in a Red Vase—yet the picture is far from representational. The artist created a collection of slabs by layering black, grey, and white paint with dabs of red and peach. These blocks are stacked, squeezed, and balanced on top of a red form sitting on a dark shape, as if a bouquet on the edge of a table. What is remarkable about this work is the sheer amount of paint de Staël piled on the surface. Applied with a palette knife, the shapes are thickly layered and even sculptural as they emerge from the canvas. de Staël’s dramatic biography is often attached to discussions of his work. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, to a wealthy family, de Staël was orphaned at an early age after fleeing the Russian Revolution with his parents. He was raised in Brussels by family friends and was exposed to art as a young boy. He spent the majority of his adult life in France, where he worked in Fernand Léger's studio and brushed shoulders with the modernists of his generation, befriending Jean Arp, Sonia Delaunay, and, especially, Georges Braque. Flowers in a Red Vase was made near the end of de Staël’s brief, but prolific career, as he took his own life the following year at the age of 41. |
  
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