Emile Claus — Roses & Poppies in a Garden Postcard

Color takes over almost completely in this dense corner of garden. Red and orange blooms crowd the lower left, cascades of pink and white roses fill the middle, brushed so loosely that individual petals barely hold their shape. Two dark green planter boxes anchor the right side, the only solid shapes in a field of dissolving color. This is Emile Claus's Luminist technique pushed closest to pure abstraction of any piece in the series — pick it for the color, not the flowers.