Green Vase 

Odilon Redon, with pastel and charcoal, captured this green vase brimming with various flowers, a still life, a motif as ancient as art itself. The arrangement, bursting with color against a hazy backdrop, is a celebration of nature’s ephemeral beauty, yet it also carries a potent charge. Since antiquity, flowers have been imbued with symbolism: Lilies for purity, roses for love, and poppies for sleep and death. What, then, are we to make of this bouquet, where disparate blooms intermingle? It evokes the vanitas tradition, where flowers symbolize the transient nature of life and beauty. Butterflies and blooms float freely; symbols of metamorphosis and transformation. Consider the flower's journey through art history, from the formal arrangements in Dutch still life paintings to the vibrant, emotionally charged depictions by Van Gogh. Redon, however, imbues them with a dreamlike quality. It is a potent reminder of our own mortality and the cyclical nature of existence.