Fiolen: vibrant violets

Gabriel produced a series of paintings depicting violets in the first half of the 1880's. This subject matter is exceptional within his oeuvre which predominantly consists of landscape painting. The violets with three colours which are known as pensées, are situated close to the picture-plane allowing for each flower to be depicted with some detail. The art critic Anton Cornelis Loffelt, writing for Het Vaderland in 1883 was clearly touched by these paintings, describing them as impressionistic. He also drew a comparison to the flower still lives by the French Barbizon painter Narcisse Diaz de la Peña (1808-1876) in that both artists create a contrast between bright flowers and a somewhat darker background. Furthermore, Loffelt went so far as to state that in terms of a lively composition and use of colour these paintings surpassed "alles wat dit genre de kunst in ons land oplevert." (see: M. Peters and B. Tempel, P.J.C. Gabriël, 1828-1903; Colorist van de Haagse School, Zwolle 1998, p. 134.

That which distinguishes Gabriel from his Hague School contemporaries, namely his use of vivid colours, is very much visible in the present lot. Gabriel described nature as being built up of colour rather than the grey palette so often used by Hague School artists.

The quality of this series of paintings is reflected by the whereabouts of other examples painted in the same period. The Centraal Museum in Utrecht has a comparable work on loan from the Stichting van Baaren Museum and the Dordrechts Museum also keeps a similar painting in its collection.