Paintings of Flowers

Flowers follow us during all our life — from gift bouquets to newborn's mother to the burial flowers which friends and relatives bring to say goodbye. This beautiful plants have always been an important part of romantic relationship, a perfect natural decoration for home, a valuable gift and a source of inspiration. It is not surprising that artists of all centuries depict flowers on their canvas.

The history of depicting flowers

Flowers has always been a part of cultural life. In Ancient Rome there was a festival dedicated to goddess Flora when men and women took part in athletic competitions, and the winners received flower wreaths. The rose was a cult flower of that time.

Though flowers has always been a part of various pictures, they started to play a leading role and be displayed themselves in 17th-19th century. At that time they could be found not only on still life paintings but as a part of interior design, costumes, fabrics, accessories etc. Later Impressionists started drawing flowers, and now floral artworks can be found within all styles and art movements.

Botanical illustrations can also be considered as floral art. Painted mostly with watercolour paints, they required from the painter a really high technique to depict all the details of a plant at the times when photography didn't exist. One of the famous botanical illustrators is Pierre-Joseph Redoute, a botanist from the Netherlands who painted over 1800 pictures of various species and was called “the Raphael of flowers”.

Symbolism of flowers in art

During the Middle Ages and early Renaissance flowers and plants had an important symbolic message:

• an evergreen ivy was a symbol of eternal life and was often used in religious paintings;
• a peach stood for salvation and truth;
• rose was a symbol of love and passion.

Sometimes flowers become a symbol of particular artists — think about Monet's water lilies or Van Gogh's famous sunflowers.

Flower art exists in all countries and is easy to understand for all cultures and ages. Online gallery ART.biz offers for sale beautiful examples of flower artworks which you can place on the wall in any room. Talented artists are welcome to add their works — our gallery works with artists, buyers and collectors from all over the world.