Flowers

As one of the founders of the Lijiang Painting School, Tu Ke rooted his work in Lingnan culture, blending Western Impressionism with the legacy of China’s national painting tradition to create a richly evocative subtropical style. Flowers vividly embodied this style and sentiment. The bright magenta blooms and lush green leaves radiate with luminous colour, while the blue ripples on the tabletop form a striking warm–cool contrast with the golden vase, adding a dreamlike sense of motion to the composition. The vase of flowers stands poised amid the rippling water, combining the qualities of both still life and landscape painting. Tu Ke merges the brisk brushstrokes of Impressionism with the colour sensibilities and use of negative space found in traditional Chinese painting, forging his path in the quest to “nationalize” oil painting.