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. Painted in 1866 and now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, it's one of his earliest still lifes — closer to Courbet than to the soft impressionism he'd soon invent.

Good for anyone who prefers a wild bunch to a florist's arrangement.