More Masters

[18th-century painting by Johannes Christianus Roedig© 2002-2009 Bonhams.]

Enfilade started the day with a post about the current interest in works by the Old Masters. I love how Johannes Christianus Roedig's 1779 painting of peaches, grapes, pumpkins, and other fruit and flowers in a wicker basket, with a classical urn in the background, ties in with Emerson Merrick's photographs of 21st-century flower arrangements from Saipua.

Isn't it interesting to see how different styles of flower arrangements go in and out of fashion? At the end of the 20th century, smaller tight groupings composed of one type of flower sans leaves were de rigueur, but in the last decade we've seen a real return of looser, often mixed bouquets favored by Lily Lodge, Saipua, Matthew Robbins, and Ariella Chezar.

[Image courtesy Social Primer; flowers by Lily Lodge.]

[Design by Lily Lodge; photo by Deborah Jaffe, Domino, April 2006. Sometimes Whole Foods offers affordable-yet-luxurious-looking peonies right around New Year's Eve.]

[Design by Matthew Robbins as seen in Martha Stewart Weddings, fall 2009.]

Above, floral designer Ariella Chezar uses only amaryllis, but her approach is very romantic and organic. Nothing is pulled into a structured geometric form. Similarly, as mentioned the other day, the flowers and branches seen throughout Elle Decor's January-February issue tend to be composed of one color but they are incredibly tall and lush. Sort of contemporary takes on arrangements seen in old European paintings.

[Detail view of Tom McWilliam's photography for Garden Design, November 2007.]


[Atlantan Ellen Baker's flowers via The Long Thread.]

[In 2005, Schuyler Samperton and Anna Hackathorn did a vignette photographed by Lisa Romerein for In Style Home . On a dressing table they used a sill life by Jules Pages. ]



[Olivier Guigni's lavish arrangement for Georgette Farkas's home in the September 2008 issue of Elle Decor; photo by William Waldron.]


Visit the Bloom library for all sorts of inspiration.

[Last image via Bloom.]