Redon's Bouquet in a Chinese Vase: Oil, Not Pastel, and Not "Bouquet of Flowers"

Short answer (updated 27 Oct 2026, pass 5): The Met's catalogue title is Bouquet in a Chinese Vase, not "Bouquet of Flowers in a Chinese Vase," and the Met's Open Access records list at least four Redon flower pictures, so the title alone won't tell you which one you're looking at. This one is an oil on canvas, about 1912–14, 64.8 × 49.8 cm (25 1/2 × 19 5/8 in.), accession 64.266. The Met bought it in 1964 with the Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ittleson Jr. Purchase Fund. Redon died in Paris in 1916, so this is late work, painted within his last four years. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The fact gap: four Met bouquets, one Chinese vase

Three details worth looking at

1. The bird on the vase. Look closely at the vase's upper left and you'll find a small painted bird among sprays of plants. That fits the patterning the Met describes; the Met says the same vessel appears in Vase of Flowers (Pink Background). (The Met; detail above)
2. Signed, lower left. "ODILON REDON" is painted small in the bottom-left corner of the red-brown ground. (Visible in the Met's Open Access image)
3. Poppies and daisy-like flowers. The Met's label for its pastel Bouquet of Flowers says Redon combined "many different types of blooms and foliage" with "a naturalist's sense of wonder." Here you can pick out poppies at the right and left and small yellow daisy-like flowers at the top. Some blooms don't resolve into any species. (The Met, label for 56.50; our identification)

Context

• Redon (French, born Bordeaux 1840, died Paris 1916) spent years working in black, in charcoal and lithograph. The Met holds charcoals like Armor (1891) and lithographs like Haunting (1893–94) from that period. The Met itself calls these black-and-white charcoals and lithographs his noirs, and quotes Redon: "Black is the most essential of all colors." (The Met, "Fantastic Blooms")
• The Met dates the change to his fifties: before the 1890s he worked almost entirely in black and white, then turned to pastel and oil. (The Met, "Fantastic Blooms")
• On how he worked, Redon wrote to his friend André Mellerio in 1898 that he would set out from an idea but soon abandon it "to follow the charming and unforeseen path of fantasy," and that "suggestive art owes much to the stimulus which the material itself exerts on the artist." He was writing about his drawings and lithographs, but we think the same loosening shows in these late bouquets (our reading). (Redon to Mellerio, 1898, as quoted in MoMA's 1961 Redon catalogue)
• In his own journal, in an entry from 1912, the years this canvas is dated to, Redon answered a critic who had called his flowers "almost theoretical." His reply: they were "fleurs venues au confluent de deux rivages, celui de la représentation, celui du souvenir," flowers that came from where two shores meet, one of seeing and one of memory (our translation). He added that days spent copying an object in detail left him sad, and that letting imagination run the next day calmed him. (Redon, À soi-même, 1922, pp. 114–115)
• The same journal has the line the Met quotes, "Le noir est la couleur la plus essentielle." Just before it, Redon notes that even his black charcoals were done on paper tinted pink, yellow or sometimes blue, the first signs of the color he would later "delight in." (Redon, À soi-même, 1922, around p. 119; our translation)
• As a young man Redon was close to Armand Clavaud, curator of the botanical garden in Bordeaux, and interested in Darwinian biology. The Met reads a naturalist's sense of wonder in his late flowers. (The Met, label for Bouquet of Flowers, 56.50)
• Redon used more than one vase. The Met says the vase in its pastel Bouquet of Flowers was made for him by the ceramicist Marie Botkin around 1900, and that it appears in a number of his flower pictures. The Met's label for this painting doesn't say whether its vase is that one. (The Met)
• Color and flowers took over in his later work. The Met's Redon holdings include pastels, tempera and oils from 1900 on, among them the oils Pandora (ca. 1914, 60.19.1) and The Chariot of Apollo (1905–16, 27.29). Pandora is the closest in date to this bouquet. (The Met)
• The Met marks this painting public domain under its Open Access program. (The Met)

Which one to hang

Our print reproduces the Met's Bouquet in a Chinese Vase, 64.266, from the museum's Open Access image (DP240599, CC0). It's not the pastel Bouquet of Flowers and not the Etruscan Vase. The sizes are portrait, to match the canvas. → Redon, Bouquet in a Chinese Vase fine art print

Also late, also about color more than subject:

• Water Lilies, 1906: Monet, the same year as the Met's pink-background Redon vase.

FAQ

What is the painting's correct title? The Met calls it Bouquet in a Chinese Vase. "Bouquet of Flowers in a Chinese Vase" is a common descriptive variant.

Is it a pastel? No, it's oil on canvas. Redon's famous flower pastels are separate works, including the Met's Bouquet of Flowers (56.50).

When was it painted? About 1912–14, a few years before Redon died in 1916.

Has it been exhibited? Yes. The earliest show the Met lists is the 1920 Venice Biennale, no. 51, as "Vaso di fiori", four years after Redon died. In London it was shown at the Matthiesen Gallery (1959, no. 75, lent anonymously from England), at Roland, Browse and Delbanco (1961, as "Summer Flowers in a Vase") and at Lefevre (1962, no. 13), shortly before it came to New York. The 1962 Lefevre catalogue dated it about 1906; the Met dates it ca. 1912–14. (The Met, Exhibition History and References, read 28 Oct 2026)

Where can I see it? At The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, accession 64.266 (Gallery 813 when on view).

Is it the same painting as the pink-background vase? No. Vase of Flowers (Pink Background) (59.16.3) is a separate Met oil, about 1906, several years earlier. According to the Met, it shows the same white vase, seen from the other side. Klaus Berger (1965) catalogued it as "vase 7", and Wildenstein's catalogue raisonné (vol. 3, 1996, no. 1518) finds the same vase in seven other floral still lifes. (The Met, Notes and References)

Who arranged the flowers? According to the Met, Redon's wife, Camille, arranged the bouquets for his late still lifes.

How big is the original? 64.8 × 49.8 cm (25 1/2 × 19 5/8 in.); framed, about 92 × 76 cm per the Met record.

Who gave it to the Met? It wasn't a gift. The Met bought it in 1964 through the Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ittleson Jr. Purchase Fund.

Where was it before the Met? The Met's provenance runs: Galerie Tanner, Zurich; Mrs. E. Reichenbach, London (by 1959 until at least 1961, sold to Lefevre); Alex Reid & Lefevre, London (1962, sold to Salz); Sam Salz, New York (1962–64, sold to The Met). It is signed in capitals at lower left: "ODILON REDON". (The Met, Provenance and Inscription tabs)

Is the image public domain? Yes. The Met releases it under Open Access (CC0). The museum does not endorse this shop.

Sources

• The Met — Odilon Redon, Bouquet in a Chinese Vase, ca. 1912–14, 64.266 (incl. Provenance, Exhibition History, References and Notes tabs, read 28 Oct 2026)
• The Met Open Access record 437378 (medium, dimensions, credit line, public-domain status)
• The Met — Redon, Bouquet of Flowers, ca. 1900–1905, pastel, 56.50
• The Met — Redon, Vase of Flowers (Pink Background), ca. 1906, 59.16.3
• The Met — Redon, Etruscan Vase with Flowers, 1900–1910, tempera, 53.140.5
• The Met — Redon, Armor, 1891, charcoal and conté crayon, 48.10.1
• The Met — Redon, Haunting, 1893–94, lithograph, 55.501
• The Met — Redon, Pandora, ca. 1914, oil on canvas, 60.19.1
• The Met — Redon, The Chariot of Apollo, 1905–16, oil on canvas, 27.29
• The Met — "Fantastic Blooms: Odilon Redon in The Met Collection" (noirs, Redon on black, turn to color)
• MoMA, Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, Rodolphe Bresdin (1961 exhibition catalogue, PDF): Redon's 1898 letter to Mellerio
• Odilon Redon, À soi-même: journal (1867–1915), Paris, 1922 (full text, Internet Archive)
• Wikidata — Bouquet in a Chinese Vase (Q19912281), linked from the Met record
• Getty ULAN — Odilon Redon (1840–1916)
• The Met — 64.266, Provenance (Tanner; Reichenbach; Reid & Lefevre; Sam Salz) and Inscription ("ODILON REDON", lower left) tabs

Quotations are short and attributed. Everything else is paraphrased.