Vase of Flowers, c. 1660, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Dutch (1606 – 1684), oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Andrew Mellon Fund, accession number 1961.6.1.
“I paint [flowers] because they’re cheaper than models and they don’t move." – Georgia O’KeeffeN.Y. Herald, 1954
Vase of Flowers exemplifies a favorite subject of still-life painters during the seventeenth century. Flowers were typically depicted as if they were frozen in place and time. A bouquet of fresh tulips will appear just as deceptively still in your living room. But viewed by time-lapse imaging, these flowers reveal just how “un-still” they really are.
Red Tulips in Vase exposes the secret life of flowers. The tulips rhythmically, hypnotically sway, rearranging themselves in the vase through a form of movement called nutation. Finally, exhausted, they collapse and succumb to death.