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View source →Peonies
Pablo Picasso, 1901
Technical Details
Medium
Oil on hardboard mounted on plywood
Dimensions
57.8 × 39.3 cm (22.8 × 15.5 in)
Style
Post-Impressionism
Decade
1900s
About This Work
Painted in 1901 during the formative emergence of Pablo Picasso's career, 'Peonies' is an oil painting on hardboard mounted on plywood measuring 57.8 by 39.3 centimeters, housed in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The vertical still life composition portrays a shiny, fern-green ceramic pitcher holding four cream-white and two ruby-red peonies positioned on a brown wooden tabletop. Rendered with loose, visible brushstrokes and a vibrant chromatic palette, the artwork captures textured strokes of cream white and pale butter yellow alongside moss and sage green leaves highlighted with vivid royal blue shadows. The pitcher features a wide mouth and cobalt-blue vertical stripes flanked by fawn-brown zigzagging lines. The background consists of sweeping strokes in aqua, light blue, and celery green curving around the floral arrangement. Signed by the artist in the lower right corner with an idiosyncratic extra 'i' in 'Piicasso', the painting exemplifies Picasso's early avant-garde experimentation.
Created in 1901 during a pivotal juncture in Paris, 'Peonies' occupies a notable place in Pablo Picasso's early oeuvre as documented in Pierre Daix and Georges Boudaille's catalogue raisonné (no. V23) and Christian Zervos's foundational survey (vol. 1, no. 60). The artwork's provenance traces back to the Marquis de Biron, art dealer Chester H. Johnson in Chicago, and Mrs. Charles B. Goodspeed (later Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman), whose 1981 bequest brought the painting to the National Gallery of Art. Exhibited in major retrospectives including the 1936 Jacques Seligmann & Co. 'Blue' and 'Rose' Periods exhibition and the 1968 Art Institute of Chicago exhibition 'Picasso in Chicago', the still life bridges late-nineteenth-century Post-Impressionism with the psychological intensity of the nascent Blue Period. While floral still lifes are relatively rare among Picasso's early avant-garde works compared to figurative studies, 'Peonies' demonstrates his dynamic handling of color and form during a critical transitional year in French modern art.
Current Location
National Gallery of Art, Washington, United States
Public Collection — Open to visitors
Visit museum website →Collection record status
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Valuation & Provenance
2026 Estimated Value
Public collection / market value not asserted
* Estimates are based on comparable auction results and market analysis. Not a formal appraisal.
Last Known Sale
No public auction record — held in permanent museum collection
Keywords
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