“A bouquet of flowers. Floxes ”, Kramskaya – overview of the painting 
- Posted by Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskaya
- Museum: Tretyakov Gallery
- Year: 1884
Overview of the painting :
“A bouquet of flowers. Floxes ”- Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskaya. 1884. Oil on canvas 64 x 56 cm
Picture “Bouquet. Floxes ”, written by Ivan Kramsky three years before his death, surprises with both genre choice and coloristic performance. A painter whose name has entered the history of painting thanks to portraits, genre scenes and philosophical works on a religious topic, suddenly writes a delightful flower still life.
The viewer sees beautiful bright fluxes that delight freshness and a variety of colors. Especially noteworthy is the image of greenery – very bright, somewhere even sharp, green involuntarily sends us to the impressionists, although Kramsky cannot be considered to them. All the solemn beauty is shaded by a blue low vase, on the glass of which the reflections of light are so filigree displayed.
Although this work is not typical of a painter, some features of the style can still be found here – neglecting the background in the name of the main one. Almost the same as in portraits of Kramsky. The artist refuses the background as an unnecessary detail of the picture, making it brown with barely noticeable overflows, and then these overflows seem to arise as a reflection of a delicious bouquet.
In the year of writing the work, the author’s family suffered a great tragedy – the death of Mark’s little son. All the sorrow of the family can be felt by looking at the work of “Unconsolidated Mountain”, and possibly the bright cheerful fluxes that Kramskoye worked on were a way to escape from sad thoughts. The more valuable this work is …