# data[].attributes.body
Jan Davidsz De Heem
Vase of Flowers
c. 1660
Oil on Canvas
565 cm x 696 cm
National Gallery of Art
Washington, DC, United States

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The still life was developed as a separate category of painting in the seventeenth century. Dutch artists worked in a variety of still-life traditions that ranged from banquet pieces to paintings focused solely on fruit, shells, books, or flowers. De Heem was one of the most gifted and versatile of these artists, and one of the most influential. His consummate technique allowed him to portray a great variety of textures in a convincing manner. In this flower painting we can delight in his realistic depiction of tulip petals, long bent reeds of wheat, minute animals including butterflies, ants, snails, caterpillars, and finally, reflections on the transparent glass vase.

De Heem also had great compositional sensitivity. Over twenty types of flowers, vegetables, and grains have been brought together here in a way that permits their colors and shapes to balance in an harmonious arrangement. Despite De Heem's realistic depiction, this floral arrangement never actually could have existed. The flowers represented grow at different seasons of the year. In many of his paintings De Heem chose to include specific animals and flowers because of their symbolic meanings; the butterfly, for example, is often a symbol for the Resurrection.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Vase of Flowers - Jan Davidsz de Heem - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The still life was developed as a separate category of painting in the seventeenth century. Dutch artists worked in a variety of still-life traditions that ranged from banquet pieces to paintings focused solely on fruit, shells, books, or flowers. De Heem was one of the most gifted and versatile of these artists, and one of the most influential.

# data[].attributes.body
Hilda Green Demsky
Sheldrake Serenade
1st Century
Oil on Canvas
30"x30"
Arts Westchester - White Plains, United States

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
From the artist: The inspiration for my paintings comes from places I've been and thoughts I have about nature. I feel energized when I see water in the landscape- splashing, falling or swirling around. Whether it's surf, or a pond or a waterfall, there's something in the air that captures my spirit. Maybe it's because I grew up on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania or live near Long Island Sound. Maybe it's my astrology sign: cancer-the-crab, or my fascination with all aspects of H2O. The constantly changing movement, reflections and color intrigue me. I love being outdoors.

The site of the painting, "Sheldrake Serenade" is the Sheldrake Environmental Resource Center on Weaver Street in Larchmont. I backed my van up to the river and painted "en plein air." I enjoy working in a variety of materials, but my preference has always been oil paint. I love its fluidity, the range of colors and how easy it is to layer color on color. I hear music when the water flows. It gives me a feeling of serenity.

People are not in my landscapes. My intent is to portray the land without the hustle and bustle in the lives of people. My paintings of water spill over rocks and riverbeds. They are metaphors for life flowing unceasingly, running its course, urging us to take the time to enjoy the beauty surrounding us and to celebrate the natural world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sheldrake Serenade - Hilda Green Demsky - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From the artist: The inspiration for my paintings comes from places I've been and thoughts I have about nature. I feel energized when I see water in the landscape- splashing, falling or swirling around. Whether it's surf, or a pond or a waterfall, there's something in the air that captures my spirit.

# data[].attributes.body
Jung, Yeon Doo
Location
2007
C-print
Variable Size
Korean Art Museum Association
South Korea

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Location - Jung, Yeon Doo - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
Candido Portinari
Still Life
1931
Oil
35 x 27cm
Projeto Portinari -Rio de Janeiro

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Composition in tones earthy, gray, red, yellow, orange and green. Smooth and thick texture. Still life with turnip, tomato, orange and two eggs on earthy area in dark tone. In the upper on the left half, flat on radish with cut foliage; slightly below a tomato suggesting be very ripe, fat and buds. To the right of tomatoes, orange and navel to just below two eggs side by side, lying. The on the left with the thinnest part of the back and the on the right in the reverse position. Background in earthy tone with shadows cast on the left.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Still Life - Candido Portinari - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Composition in tones earthy, gray, red, yellow, orange and green. Smooth and thick texture. Still life with turnip, tomato, orange and two eggs on earthy area in dark tone. In the upper on the left half, flat on radish with cut foliage; slightly below a tomato suggesting be very ripe, fat and buds.

# data[].attributes.body
William Morris
Wild Tulip Wallpaper
1884
Block-printed in distemper on paper
91.4 x 55.9 cm
William Morris Gallery - Walthamstow, London

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
William Morris frequently used tulips in his designs for fabric and wallpaper. Here the small wild tulips form a mid-ground with a foreground of ribbons of larger peonies intertwining with scrolling stems. Morris's daughter May wrote how the character of this design was "all 'Kelmscott' to me: the peony and the wild tulip are two of the richest blossomings of the spring garden at the Manor". Kelmscott Manor was the Morris family's country home in Oxfordshire.

Morris registered the design for 'Wild Tulip' wallpaper on 21st November 1884. The repeat is 64.8 x 26.7. This example in orange is printed down the right edge 'MORRIS & Co Ltd REGISTERED No 175' and pencilled in the right margin: 'Wild Tulip 162 (price) 8/6'. Number 162 is the Morris & Co. colourway number for the orange version of this wallpaper, other colourways were also available.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'Wild Tulip' wallpaper - William Morris, Morris & Co., and Jeffrey & Co. - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
William Morris frequently used tulips in his designs for fabric and wallpaper. Here the small wild tulips form a mid-ground with a foreground of ribbons of larger peonies intertwining with scrolling stems. Morris's daughter May wrote how the character of this design was "all 'Kelmscott' to me: the peony and the wild tulip are two of the richest blossomings of the spring garden at the Manor".

# data[].attributes.body
Auguste Louis Lepère
Bucolique Moderne
1901
Color woodcut on wove paper
260 mm x 420 mm
Davidson Art Center, Wesleylan University

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bucolique Moderne - Auguste Louis Lepère - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world’s treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
Victor Vasarely
Boulouss
1984
Lithograph
23 in x 23 in
Inter-American Development Bank
Washington, United States

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Victor Vasarely 's lithograph "Boulouss" radiates energy outward from the center of the image to the viewer's eye. The centrifugal design creates an illusion of movement, rendered through a circular grid and a geometric composition of contrasting red and green tones. In "Boulouss", the sequential pattern of circles, which grow larger in size as they approach the center of the image, evokes a dynamic, three-dimensional space that appears to simultaneously recede and expand. This effect is amplified by four luminous, triangular forms pointing inward. The optical tension that results from these visual effects engages the viewer through a dynamic experience in which a two-dimensional image produces the illusion of motion. The emphasis that Op art placed on the experiential aspect of art laid the groundwork for the development of new tendencies in modern art that privileged sensory, rather than cognitive, experience.

This text was created in collaboration with the University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology and written by Patricia Ortega-Miranda.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Boulouss - Victor Vasarely - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Victor Vasarely 's lithograph "Boulouss" radiates energy outward from the center of the image to the viewer's eye. The centrifugal design creates an illusion of movement, rendered through a circular grid and a geometric composition of contrasting red and green tones.

# data[].attributes.body
Charles Conder
The hot sands, Mustapha, Algiers
1891
Oil on canvas
46.0 cm x 55.3 cm
Art Gallery of New Found Wales, Sydney, Australia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The hot sands, Mustapha, Algiers - Charles Conder - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world’s treasures online.