Anxious Flowers 

Margareta Sterian painted 'Anxious Flowers' using delicate hues to create a composition in which a vase of flowers emerges from a hazy background. Born in Romania at the end of the 19th century, Sterian navigated a world of shifting social expectations for women in the arts. While she embraced modernism, she remained committed to a deeply personal expression. Here, the flowers, rendered in soft reds and pinks, seem to vibrate with an inner energy, as if reflecting the artist's own emotional landscape. Traditionally, still life paintings of flowers were associated with femininity and domesticity. But Sterian disrupts such conventional interpretations. The 'anxiety' in the title hints at a deeper, perhaps unsettling, emotional complexity. Sterian's flowers are not simply objects of beauty, but carriers of complex emotions and narratives. In a world that often sought to confine female artists to certain subjects, Sterian used the language of flowers to speak to a broader, more nuanced understanding of human experience. She asks us to consider the intricate relationship between our inner selves and the world around us.