private collection
Floral Vase Cabinet
Flowers have always been a great subject for decoration. The shapes and colors offer endless variety. When I started making marquetry I mimicked the French Art Nouveau floral patterns of Gallé (see earlier post) and Majorelle (see earlier post). Eventually I made much more complex and painterly pictures to use on furniture. These were more closely related to 18th century Dutch antecedents like van Mekeren (see earlier post).
A client asked me to make a cabinet to store his collection of Dutch prints. A recurring image in this artwork was flowers in a still-life setting. I chose to decorate the piece with four bouquets.
The flowers are mixed, as they usually were in Dutch painting. Two of the vases were “ceramic” and two appearing to be “glass”. I was particularly proud of being able to depict the transparent glass in the marquetry. This was done by mixing thin pieces of holly (white) with darker tones on the edges of the forms. Additionally, I distorted the stems and water in the vases to accentuate the illusion.