Martin Schongauer, Studies of Peonies
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles · Digital image courtesy of Getty's Open Content ProgramView original →
Martin Schongauer

Studies of Peonies

about 1472–1473

Current Collection

J. Paul Getty Museum

Los Angeles, United States

Medium
Gouache and waterolor
Dimensions
25.7 × 33 cm
Status
In Museum Collection
Collect24 Art ID
C24-202701

One of the earliest surviving northern European botanical studies drawn from life, this drawing shows a fully opened peony bloom, viewed first from the front and then from the back, and one bud. Martin Schongauer achieved subtly gradated coloration by laying in the basic forms in a broad painterly wash and then describing the details in bodycolor, opaque water-based color, with the point of the brush. Though an outstanding example of a highly finished drawing, it was made as a study for the painting, *The Madonna of the Rose Garden* of 1473, in the Dominican church in Colmar. During the late 1400s, people began to perceive the natural world in a radically different way. They ventured out into nature to study it and record it firsthand. Along with others artists, Schongauer became one of the leading pioneers of an effort to make studies directly from nature.

Provenance

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Registry history

  • about 1472–1473 — Recorded in the collection of J. Paul Getty Museum — drawings

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