Vægdekoration - Europa

Shipped only within the EU.

The composition represents a rich bouquet of flowers, dominated by roses, peonies and pansies, arranged on a deep brown-black background. The flowers are built up through successive strokes and bright accents, in a refined palette of cream-white, pink, carmine and purple, the dark foliage amplifying the effect of volume and depth of the bouquet.

A special feature of the work is the convex painted support, the curvature being achieved during manufacture and not the result of a later deformation. This construction gives the painting a pronounced three-dimensional effect, the central flowers being visually projected towards the viewer.

The type of support and the decorative manner show affinities with the English Victorian tradition of painted papier-mâché/pressed material panels and objects, developed especially in centres such as Birmingham in the 19th century. English manufactures of the period produced numerous hand-painted, modelled objects and panels with still lifes and floral compositions on dark backgrounds.

The work bears no visible maker's mark and is therefore not attributed to a specific workshop, but the technical and decorative features allow the cautious suggestion of an English origin, probably in the tradition of the Birmingham papier-mâché workshops.

The painting is presented in a spectacular, gilded frame in the Rococo Revival/Louis XV style, richly ornamented with rocaille, volutes, acanthus leaves and vegetal motifs in relief. The oval shape of the opening follows the composition perfectly and emphasizes the decorative character of the ensemble.

School: probably English
Period: Victorian era, ca. 1850–1870
Genre: floral still life
Style: Victorian / late romanticism / decorative academism
Technique: oil on convex rigid support, pressed/shaped
Support: probably papier-mâché or pressed and shaped cardboard
Signature: unsigned
Painting dimensions: approx. 36 × 26 cm
Overall dimensions: approx. 50 × 40 × 7 cm
Frame: gilded, richly ornamented, Rococo Revival / Louis XV Revival style
An attractive and unusual Victorian pictorial-decorative ensemble from the 19th century, noted for the quality of the floral composition, the richness of the frame and, in particular, for the rarely encountered convex-shaped support, characteristic of the tradition of painted decorative objects of the Victorian era.