Pink Roses, Chinese Vase 1920

Here we have Samuel Peploe’s painting, “Pink Roses, Chinese Vase”, painted in, well, we don’t know exactly when. Looking at the brushwork, I imagine Peploe building up the image with quick, decisive strokes. The roses are rendered in soft pinks and whites, while the vase is a cool contrast of blue and white. It’s like he's having a conversation between the softness of the flowers and the rigid geometry of the vase. There’s this one stroke of crimson that defines the edge of a rose petal – it’s so simple, yet it gives the whole flower a sense of depth and volume. I bet Peploe was thinking about Cezanne and those other painters who were using color to build form. I see this as part of a larger exploration in painting, where artists are constantly pushing and pulling at the boundaries of representation.