by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 2, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
A cloud of small white blossoms and scattered pink roses rises above a tall blue vase. The background is warm ochre, the table a narrow dark ledge. Renoir lets the pale flowers dissolve into brisk touches of paint while he gives the vase a firm, almost architectural shape. The inherited image on this page matches the illustrated reproduction of Vase with Lilacs and Roses. [1] Its stated size and date match the Christie’s catalogue entry for Vase de lilas et roses [2]: an oil on canvas painted circa 1870, measuring 65 × 54.5 cm. That agreement supports the identification, although Christie’s text page does not display a usable image for a direct comparison with its lot photograph.
The name on this route is an English rendering of the French catalogue title. The flowers, blue vessel and shallow tabletop are the specific features of the work pictured here. They also distinguish it from several other Renoir bouquets with roses, lilacs or blue vases. The catalogue’s provenance is unusually interesting: it names both Georges Rivière and Paul Cézanne among earlier owners. It does not prove where the painting is today.
Contents
- The painting at a glance
- Flowers that gather and scatter
- The tall blue vase
- An early flower painting
- An unusual ownership record
- Looking again
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- ArtistPierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
- Catalogue titleVase de lilas et roses
- Local titleVase of Lilacs and Roses
- DateCirca 1870, according to Christie’s
- MediumOil on canvas
- Size65 × 54.5 cm
- Current locationNot established by the available catalogue record
The lot entry establishes the documentary details, while the reproduced image supplies the basis for looking closely. The spelling “lilacs” follows the French lilas in the catalogue. A later merchandising listing calls the same design “lilies and roses,” but that English wording does not override the lot title or justify identifying the white sprays as lilies. Their many tiny blossoms look like lilac clusters in the reproduction.
Flowers that gather and scatter
The arrangement is broad at the top and narrow where it enters the vase. White lilacs occupy much of its surface, but they do not form a single solid cap. The small marks of light are broken by yellow-green leaves, dark twig-like stems and pockets of shadow. Pink roses appear at different heights. Some are quite clear and cupped; others are little more than warm notes among the white.
Renoir gives the flowers room to move. A dark leaf reaches left from the bouquet. At the right, a narrow green shape extends outward before the blossoms fall back toward the centre. The uneven outline keeps the arrangement lively even though the vase stands close to the middle of the picture. The loose outer contour also changes the way we read the ochre wall: gaps between leaves and petals become part of the design.
There is no need to invent a precise botanical inventory from this small image. The documented title identifies lilacs and roses; the visible picture supports a description of white clustered flowers and scattered pink blooms. The particular garden, person who arranged the bouquet and occasion for its painting are not supplied by Christie’s. The picture gives us an encounter with colour and shape, rather than a documented narrative about who picked the flowers.
The tall blue vase
The vase is the most concentrated block of colour. Its long neck rises from a wider base, tapering just below the foliage. It is blue-violet with dark irregular markings and warmer brown strokes on the left. Those accents may suggest painted decoration and reflected surroundings, but the source does not identify a maker, material or style. It is better to attend to what the image actually shows: blue against a field of yellow-brown and the weight of a single vessel under an exuberant bouquet.
The vase’s outline is comparatively stable. Its straight sides and flat base make the flowers above seem more open and irregular. Yet the surface is no smooth, uniform blue. Short marks move across it, echoing the touches that build the petals. Renoir therefore connects the container and bouquet through brushwork even while their shapes contrast.
A narrow tabletop runs across the lower edge. Dark green-black paint marks its left side; red-brown and pinkish strokes gather beneath the vase. Behind it, the warm wall is textured with slanting marks and a lighter patch at the upper left. Near the right edge, pale and grey strokes interrupt the wall. The setting is spare, but not blank. Its colour makes the white flowers bright and draws attention to the cool vase without requiring a window, room or other objects.
An early flower painting
Christie’s circa 1870 date places this work early in Renoir’s long engagement with floral still life. The National Gallery of Art’s Flowers in a Vase [3], dated about 1866, is a different painting. Its wildflowers sit in a red clay jug. Comparing the two is useful because each lets a loose bouquet spread across a vertical canvas, but the vessels, flowers, colours and ownership records must remain separate.
The Clark Art Institute’s scholarly catalogue [4] discusses Renoir’s flower paintings and cites a recollection by Georges Rivière of the artist’s pleasure in experimenting with colours and values when painting flowers. The catalogue cautions that the remark may refer especially to Renoir’s later informal studies. It cannot be treated as a statement about this particular circa 1870 canvas. Still, it helps explain why flower pictures are worth looking at as exercises in composition and paint, not just decorative subjects.
Here Renoir works with a clear problem: how to hold a dense mass of tiny pale blossoms against a similarly light background. He uses dark leaves and grey-green shadows to divide the whites. The pink roses create islands of warmer colour, and the blue vase anchors the lower half. A slower look shows an arrangement of intervals, contrasts and edges. The subject may be familiar, but the balance is specific to this canvas.
An unusual ownership record
Christie’s provenance begins with Georges Rivière, who, according to its entry, acquired the painting directly from Renoir. Paul Cézanne appears next, without a date or transaction detail. This is a striking connection between two painters of the period, but the lot listing alone does not tell us why Cézanne had it, how long he kept it or whether it hung in his home. Those would be attractive stories to tell; they are not established by this source.
The work was later with Sambon-Warneck in Paris and appeared as lot 196 in the 1 June 1956 Galerie Charpentier sale, where Christie’s says it was illustrated. The subsequent chain includes Mrs Gaston Bernheim Villers, Philippe de la Chappelle by descent, and Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris. It then passed through Hirschl & Adler Galleries in New York, Mrs Philip D. Armour, and Trosby Galleries in Palm Beach. The Christie’s entry says its seller acquired the painting from Trosby around 1970.
This sequence offers dated and named waypoints, not a complete account of every move. Christie’s also lists the work in Hirschl & Adler’s May–June 1965 exhibition Flowers: Exhibition of 18th, 19th and 20th Century Paintings, number 33, illustrated in colour on the catalogue cover. That exhibition detail is useful corroboration of the work’s identity and circulation. The phrase “present owner” in the historical lot text refers to the seller at the time of that sale, not necessarily the owner now.
Looking again
Start at the foot of the vase and follow its blue sides upward. At the mouth, the orderly vertical form gives way to leaves and small white marks. Locate a pink rose near the middle, then find the other pink accents across the bouquet. Finally, look into the background around its edges. The warm wall keeps the palest flowers visible, while the darkest foliage divides them into clusters.
Vase of Lilacs and Roses is a helpful name for this page’s pictured work, and Vase de lilas et roses connects it to the Christie’s record. The documented size, date and historical owners make the object more specific than a generic Renoir bouquet. Its visual interest rests in the exchange between a stable blue vase and a crown of flowers that seems to flicker and expand beyond it.
Renoir artworks directory
Questions about Vase of Lilacs and Roses
Christie’s dates Vase de lilas et roses to circa 1870. The “circa” matters: the catalogue does not give an exact year.
The Christie’s lot entry records oil on canvas, 65 × 54.5 cm.
The French catalogue title names lilacs (lilas) and roses. The small clustered blossoms in the reproduced image are consistent with that title. A later merchandise listing uses “lilies,” but it is not the lot title.
Christie’s lists Paul Cézanne in the provenance after Georges Rivière. It gives no date or explanation for Cézanne’s ownership.
The available historical sale listing does not establish a current owner or public display location. Its “present owner” language belongs to the date of that sale.
Discussion
What do you notice when you return to the lilacs and blue vase?
How do the pink roses interrupt the white lilacs?
Reader Insights
How do the pink roses interrupt the white lilacs?
Christie’s catalogued this oil circa 1870, 65 × 54.5 cm.
How do the dark leaves separate the pale blossoms?
Join the Conversation
Share a close observation or a source-backed question about Renoir’s blue-vase still life.
References
- TOPofART, Vase with Lilacs and Roses: illustrated reproduction visually matching the inherited local image and repeating the 65 × 54.5 cm dimensions. Used for identification only, not copied into the page View source.
- Christie’s, Vase de lilas et roses, lot 2411364: object title, circa 1870 date, medium, dimensions, provenance and 1965 exhibition. Its current web text has no usable lot image for visual comparison View source.
- National Gallery of Art, Flowers in a Vase: distinct circa 1866 Renoir painting, used only for comparison View source.
- Clark Art Institute, scholarly catalogue discussion of Renoir flower painting: context for Renoir’s treatment of flowers, with its own caution about the date of the artist’s reported remark View source.
