Condemned to Sparkle

Floral still lifes by French painter Léon Bonvin (1834–66) show seemingly artlessly arranged flowers, often of a single variety, in simple vases, drinking glasses or bottles. Usually, these posies, which were painted between 1859 and the artist's suicide in 1866, are placed on a shallow shelf or table of wood or sometimes marble, against subtly modulated grey or brown backgrounds. Typically, the centre of the page coincides with a vanishing point located in the middle of the floral cluster, so that the eye-line of the viewer corresponds with the centre of the arrangement. The flowers are difficult to locate precisely in relation to the viewer, but appear to sit just out of arm's reach. Light enters from one side, raking the flowers with enough force that the resulting contrast of light and shadow conveys a strong sense of their three-dimensionality. Technically this effect is achieved by outlining the edges of petals, buds, and leaves, otherwise conjured from nuanced watercolour washes, with iron gall ink and graphite. This can be seen particularly clearly in a still life of red and white carnations (Fig. 1). The cloudy white flowers are defined by zigzag lines of iron gall ink, originally black but now turned rusty-brown with time. These lines lead the eye to construct layers of encircling petals that intricately enfolded one another at the same time as they open out into space. The raking light often picks out minute particles of petals and pollen that have dropped onto the table from the blooms that have wilted slightly. For example, in the painting of spring flowers a curled green leaf to the left casts a long shadow. Slightly to the right is a tiny forget-me-not petal, again with its own small shadow (Fig. 2). Under magnification this and other such elements are shown to have been formed with extreme control and meticulousness. The forget-me-not petal is composed of several colours, and in combination with the dark point of the shadow, projects forward with a heightened three-dimensionality. These shed particles invoke the damp, soil-like crumbs of organic decay with uncanny tactility. Bonvin's masterful mixed-media technique, employing watercolour, gouache, and gum, as well as graphite and ink, is consistent across his total known output of approximately sixty-three watercolours.

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