Notes 

This still life, mostly composed of an impasto painted bouquet of flowers in a glass vase against a white background, and on a loosely draped tablecloth, is comparable to the one in the collection of the national Museum Kröller-Müller and to a work that was illustrated in the catalogue of the exhibition ‘A Feast of Colour’, in the Noordbrabants Museum, Den Bosch, 1990, cat. no. 65, p.174.

Raffaëlli was also a sculptor and printmaker. After his interest in music and theatre, he turned to painting in 1870 with a short three-month spell in the studio of Gérome in 1871. By the late 1870’s, Raffaëlli’s career as a realist artist was launched with the support of various art critics.

Later, the Impressionists influenced him, and, at the insistence of Edgar Degas, he was included in the their group shows of 1880 and 1881. He became an important interpreter of suburban life during the Parisian expansion period, on a quest for Realism.

Raffaëlli defined the realist artist as one duty-bound to reveal the essential character of various aspects of reality, including the nature of contemporary society and its individual personalities.

As he gradually assumed a buoyant self-confidence, this celebrated and talented artist created for himself a new system of brush strokes in a ‘whiskery’ manner, which lends a fleeting impression of vividness to his colourful works, often resulting in a true feast of colours.