Dahlias

This painting was a rare still life artwork by Berthe Morisot, who normally produced figurative work. It was completed in 1876 and can now be found in the permanent collection of The Clark Art Institute in the USA.

We find in front of us here a depiction of a flower pot with multi coloured flowers, sat on a wooden table in the corner of a room. The table itself is beatifully designed, with artistic features typical of the period. Although it only appears at the very bottom of the work, we can still approximate its style and the size and height that it would have been. The artist wants to focus our attention on the main flower pot, making everything else in the scene able to be cropped. The wall behind is entirely plain and serves only to help us understand the room a little better. The pot itself features a floral design on the front, featuring tones of purple, green and blue. It is ceramic, painted mainly in white and has a small base at the bottom. The flowers placed within it are a multitude of colours, with yellows, reds, pinks and purples all on display. The artist may well have adapted the pot for this painting, bringing more colour in to add a real energy within this work.

The artist's composition is unusual, with the pot taking centrestage, pushing the flowers slightly towards the edge of the scene. Morisot chose not to exhibit this painting, though others would do so after her passing during a memorial exhibition which was laid on in respect of her considerable achievements. It is believed to have been acquired by its present owners in the 1970s and most of the time will be found out on display, because of the importance of Morisot's career, the beauty of this particular painting, but also the increased efforts to give more exposure to female artists who were perhaps treated unfairly by the art world until fairly recently.

Head to The Clark Art Institute in order to see this painting in real life, but check ahead to see if it is on display as the venue's permanent collection will often be rotated in order to allow as many items to be viewable across the year as possible. For those with broad artistic tastes, other items that might be of interest to you here include Pieta with Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea by Pietro Perugino, Thames at Hampton Court by Alfred Sisley, The Slave Market by Jean-Leon Gerome and also Women of Amfissa by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. They cover everything from the Renaissance up to the very early 20th century, giving art fans plenty to enjoy within this respected art gallery.