Flowers in a Vase (Wildflowers, 1866) — Renoir Postcard

Twenty-five-year-old Renoir piles a terracotta jug high with red poppies, white daisies, blue cornflowers and tangled yellow blossoms, all balanced on a rough stone ledge. From 1866 and now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, this is one of his earliest still lifes — closer to Courbet than to the soft impressionism he would soon invent — and reads beautifully as a botanical card for someone who loves the field more than the bouquet.