Blue‑green jug Symbolism

A humble vessel that anchors and stabilizes the scene; a cool, everyday counterpoint to the heat of the blooms and a sign of structure/classicizing order.

Common Themes

Mimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Romantic loveEveryday life as art (readymade, the ordinary)Mortality & transience (memento mori)Beauty & the ideal

Artworks Featuring This Symbol

Vase of Flowers by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Vase of Flowers

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (c. 1889)

Vase of Flowers is a late‑1880s still life in which Pierre-Auguste Renoir turns a humble blue‑green jug and a tumbling bouquet into a <strong>laboratory of color and touch</strong>. Against a warm ocher wall and reddish tabletop, coral and vermilion blossoms flare while cool greens and violets anchor the mass, letting <strong>color function as drawing</strong> <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[4]</sup>. The work affirms Renoir’s belief that flower painting was a space for bold experimentation that fed his figure art.