Artwork to go / Avgusta Šantel Jr. - Flowers in a Vase
Artwork to go / Avgusta Šantel Jr. - Flowers in a Vase
100+ Highlights from the UGM Collection
Every week, take the "artwork to go" from our gallery, which you can also get to know through the audio description here or the video here. As the second "artwork to go", we present Flowers in a Vase by artist Avgusta Šantel Jr.
Avgusta Šantel Jr. came from an artistic family. Her artistic foundations, marked by the spirit of bourgeois realism, were passed on to her by her mother, a painter, before she continued her studies at private schools in Vienna and Munich. She also educated herself as an art teacher. In her ninety-three-year-long life, she created numerous works of art, among which prevail still lifes in various techniques.
She painted Flowers in a Vase in 1909, when she was teaching in Pula at a public girls' school and a school for children of the navy personnel. She wrote in her diary that this was a time when outdoor painting was not desirable, so she arranged herself a studio at home. She compiled a comprehensive herbarium to create meticulous depictions of diverse flowering plants that required substantial botanical knowledge. In the painting before us, using the traditional oil on canvas technique, she depicted a bouquet of a garden snowball shrub (Viburnum opulus ‘Sterile’). The delicately painted translucent vase supports the petals depicted in thick layers of paint. The snow-white balls stand out from the dark background, giving the impression of turning towards the light. The vigour of the composition is enhanced by the contrasting background, which is on the left side darker than on the right. Although a still life, the symbol of nature morte, this lush flower bouquet invokes the joy of life.
