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EMILY BEENY: Not every dying artist paints flowers with this sort of insistent liveliness. There’s a sort of fierce embrace of vitality that we see in works like this one that really distinguishes the late career of Manet.

NARRATOR: This square-footed vase appears in several of Manet’s late flower paintings. Emily Beeny walks us through this arrangement of pink roses and white lilacs.

EMILY BEENY: Just the number of different mark making we see in this composition is quite extraordinary. With bits of the lilac left in pale gray reserve and then punctuated with this sort of confetti of brief brushstrokes to give us the sense of the fluffiness of the lilacs versus a much creamier application in the rose petals and then the etched decoration on the crystal vase itself.

NARRATOR: Many of the flower paintings on this wall were inspired by friends and collectors who would bring Manet flowers when they visited. Curator Scott Allan. 

SCOTT ALLAN: Given that Manet was increasingly confined in the studio and didn’t have really the physical energy or capacity to tackle really big projects anymore, doing relatively small easel-sized pictures of flowers was something he could concentrate his energies on without a lot of physical exertion.

EMILY BEENY: In these last years he seems to let go of some of the vanity of that ambition and embrace the pure joy of painting something beautiful. 

NARRATOR: There were other motivating factors for Manet to paint these bouquets, both for him and his visitors, some of whom were collectors or working on behalf of collectors.

EMILY BEENY: Manet discovered that these flower paintings sold very well. 

SCOTT ALLAN: There’s a demand for these paintings, and Manet meets the demand. He’s selling a good number of flower paintings each year to this kind of small circle of collectors, which includes some fairly prominent connoisseurs and art world people.