A Large Late 19thC Continental Folk Art Still Life Painted Panel Of Flowers in Pots c.1890

Origin: Probably Austro-Hungarian, possibly Transylvanian
Period: Late Victorian
Provenance: Christopher Peters Antiques 2000
Date: c.1890
Width: 31”
Height: 41.5”
Depth: 0.5”

The wonderfully naïve, primitive and unusually large late nineteenth century folk art painted panel, worked in oils upon a series of joined pine boards and depicting three pots of stylised flowering plants to a central terracotta-coloured pot supporting an exuberant arrangement of long green leaves and drooping red flower heads, flanked by two smaller potted plants, the whole set against a wonderfully warm earthy ochre and russet ground and surviving from central Europe.

The work is in good untouched country-house condition, with numerous age-related separations between the boards, old splits, scratches, knocks and scattered losses to the painted surface. Extensive craquelure and surface wear throughout. Later metal hanging plates have been fitted verso. The panel appears pleasingly un-restored and its accumulated wear is very much part of its decorative appeal.

The composition is enclosed by a painted architectural border, with a pale blue-grey and red striped surround and a simple geometric band beneath the pots. The wonderfully unsophisticated handling, limited palette and almost entirely flattened perspective give the picture the character of provincial decorative painting, rather than conventional easel painting. Particularly attractive is the way the individual pine boards remain plainly visible through the painted surface. Such paintings sit somewhere between folk art, domestic decoration and painted furniture, probably originally conceived as an architectural or decorative panel rather than as a formal fine-art picture. The flowering plants have the quality of traditional vernacular ornament, where familiar domestic subjects were rendered directly and charmingly without concern for academic perspective or botanical accuracy. 

The considerable scale and remarkably warm, untouched surface make this a particularly decorative survivor with a rather Mediterranean feel.