Peonies in a Vase

Charles Ethan Porter

National Gallery of Art

A bouquet of six blousy, frilled, white and pale pink peonies are gathered in a vase in this vertical still-life painting. One more flower lies on the table in front of the vase. The bright, cream-white petals of two open flowers curl back from yellow centers. The petals of other flowers are cupped in dense layers, some petals streaked in dark or blush pink. The roughly oval, green leaves come to points at each end. The straight-sided vase is painted so that it nearly disappears into the fog-gray and soft brown background, but the optics of the water in the clear glass play with the light falling beyond it. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, “C.E. Porter.”