(Untitled) Vase of Flowers on a Table Before a Painting.
c. early 1920s.
Price:
$45,000.00
15 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches, painting; 20 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches, frame. Oil on canvas, on original stretcher; printed Bourlet label and typescript title affixed to stretcher verso; autograph writing stretcher bars and verso of canvas; gilt framed, with linen matte; no glass.
Item #377056
From the very beginning of her artistic career, Vanessa Bell painted floral still lifes, often using vessels and objects from around her house, as well as flowers from her garden. The aesthetic styles of those works evolved over the years, from spare linear modernism in the 1910s to her bright, colorful canvases of the 1940s and 1950s; between those two eras were oils notable for both their muted palette and assured, confident brushwork.
While this work was initialed by Bell in red in the lower right hand corner ("VB"), it was not dated; however, based on its technique and form — which echo that of the Old Master paintings Roger Fry encouraged her to copy — we can confidently place its creation within that middle span, likely the beginning of the 1920s. The inclusion of an ornately-framed painting in the background — very similar to views of the pond at Charleston and Tilton which she painted in the early 1920s — along with a carved post and fallen flowers at front, also points to that period, as Bell often added extra objects into the surrounding mise-en-scène of her works then. (Her later paintings exhibited primarily drapery or blank walls behind the arrangement's focal point.)
The painting has been matted and framed around the original stretcher, which retains a James Bourlet & Sons label on the verso. Bourlet was one of London's premier frame makers and art handling firms, and according to an August 7, 1939, letter from Clive Bell letter to a Mrs. Goodspeed at the Newbery Library, Vanessa regularly used the company: "As Bourlet does all her transport business, as well as that of Duncan Grant, I don't think there will be the least difficulty about collecting the pictures."
The label provides further evidence, as well, that the painting was produced during the 1920s. In 1917, London's postcode convention changed, and numbers were added to previously letter-only designations. The Bourlet label here uses just "W," not the new "W1" code for its Nassau Street address, but the firm apparently continued using its old labels throughout the ensuing years until they ran out; images of Bourlet labels from the 1930s present a different design, and use the W1 code.
Item #377056
From the very beginning of her artistic career, Vanessa Bell painted floral still lifes, often using vessels and objects from around her house, as well as flowers from her garden. The aesthetic styles of those works evolved over the years, from spare linear modernism in the 1910s to her bright, colorful canvases of the 1940s and 1950s; between those two eras were oils notable for both their muted palette and assured, confident brushwork.
While this work was initialed by Bell in red in the lower right hand corner ("VB"), it was not dated; however, based on its technique and form — which echo that of the Old Master paintings Roger Fry encouraged her to copy — we can confidently place its creation within that middle span, likely the beginning of the 1920s. The inclusion of an ornately-framed painting in the background — very similar to views of the pond at Charleston and Tilton which she painted in the early 1920s — along with a carved post and fallen flowers at front, also points to that period, as Bell often added extra objects into the surrounding mise-en-scène of her works then. (Her later paintings exhibited primarily drapery or blank walls behind the arrangement's focal point.)
The painting has been matted and framed around the original stretcher, which retains a James Bourlet & Sons label on the verso. Bourlet was one of London's premier frame makers and art handling firms, and according to an August 7, 1939, letter from Clive Bell letter to a Mrs. Goodspeed at the Newbery Library, Vanessa regularly used the company: "As Bourlet does all her transport business, as well as that of Duncan Grant, I don't think there will be the least difficulty about collecting the pictures."
The label provides further evidence, as well, that the painting was produced during the 1920s. In 1917, London's postcode convention changed, and numbers were added to previously letter-only designations. The Bourlet label here uses just "W," not the new "W1" code for its Nassau Street address, but the firm apparently continued using its old labels throughout the ensuing years until they ran out; images of Bourlet labels from the 1930s present a different design, and use the W1 code.
