Looking at Paintings Flowers

Author: Peggy Roalf
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: LOOKING AT PAINTINGS is a series of books designed to present many different painters' views of a single subject. Here is a visual feast of paintings, each of which shows us something about what great artists see when they paint. In Flowers, Peggy Roalf leads readers on a personal gallery tour of nineteen favorite flower paintings, from the work of Renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo to twentieth-century artists such as Paul Klee and Henri Matisse, each person's vision and interpretation of flowers in unique. Some artists, such as Edouard Manet in Pique and Clematis in a Crystal Vase and Pierre-Auguste Renoir in Spring Bouquet, present a more traditional and familiar view of flowers by painting them in vases and by emphasizing the background as well as the blooms. An artist such as Georgia O'Keeffe, however, captures the more wild and tempestuous beauty of a flower in White Sweet Peas, whereas Rene Magritte in The Wrestler's Tomb focuses on a single bloom so closely that it becomes almost something other than a flower. To see through the eyes of many of the world's greatest painters is to stimulate the imagination as well. Flowers in the LOOKING AT PAINTINGS series is a book that will inspire young readers to observe their world and to use their imagination to see like a painter.
Author Bio: PEGGY ROALF is a painter, graphic designer, and writer who has taught art to young people and their parents at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art Weekend Family Program. She is a member of The Authors Guild.