Throughout his career, Renoir enjoyed painting still life, usually flowers or fruit. When arthritis limited his manual flexibility, he restricted himself to tinier brush strokes and smaller canvases. These modest flower studies met his needs physically and aesthetically. Knowing Renoir enjoyed having blossoms about, he carefully arranged fresh flowers, daily, in simple vases. But Renoir himself often said, "Flowers are so pretty put in any old way", and he often painted them that way, as in this picture.

VASE OF CHRYSANTHEMUMS (c. 1895)
Oil on Canvas

The painter applied a series of thin, colored glazes to a canvas first prepared with white. He then built up the surface with successive dabs of brownish reds, deeper reds, pinks, and finally his thickest colors -- yellows and whites. Renoir felt that the tones of flowers, flesh, and fruit are never opaque. His method of applying pigment produced the desired transparency, and the resulting floral compositions, in particular, are triumphs of vivid sensuosity.