Vase of Flowers

ca. 1926
Not on view
Under the enduring influence of Paul Cézanne, Dickinson frequently worked in still life, the genre that the Post-Impressionist master had established as equal in stature to landscape or portraiture. Vase of Flowers unites Dickinson's skill at representing a traditional subject with his more avant-garde ideas about composition and perspective; he was considered one of the painters working in a Precisionist style in the 1920s. This scene is framed by a blue curtain, a conventional device of illusionistic painting, yet the sharply tilted tabletop and the hard-edged planes of the depicted objects indicate the artist's interest in newer means of representation. The woman's fan and the vase holding tulips and tiger lilies are timeless still-life elements, although the ashtray with a cigarette balanced on its rim is a pleasingly modern touch.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Vase of Flowers
  • Artist: Preston Dickinson (American, New York, New York 1889–1930 Irun, Spain)
  • Date: ca. 1926
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 30 1/4 × 18 3/8 in. (76.8 × 46.7 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Carl D. Lobell, 1995
  • Object Number: 1995.547.3
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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