Victorian Bouquet depicts a lavish bouquet of morning glories, irises, dahlias, poppies, roses, and foxglove. The flowers are arranged in a vase on a marble table against a plain, dark background, alongside a bird’s nest with three eggs, and a stemmed wine glass. Roesen’s composition includes flowers that bloom at different times of the year. In fact, it would have been impossible to assemble such an array of flowers. Thus, a painting that appears highly realistic is actually a fiction created by the artist.
Roesen paid meticulous attention to details of petals, leaves, and even glistening dewdrops and reflections in the glass. This still-life arrangement also gave the artist a chance to show his skill at painting many textures – glass, petals, eggshells, and leaves – with the utmost realism. The contrast between the dark background and the brilliantly hued flowers is theatrical. Roesen’s style is a combination of the naturalistic and the dramatic and was influenced by Dutch still-life painting of the seventeenth century. For additional information about Dutch still-life painting, see Willem Claesz. Heda’s Banquet Piece with Ham.
Born in Germany, Severin Roesen trained as a porcelain enameler in Cologne. He probably immigrated to the United States during the 1848 political upheavals in Germany, as he sold two paintings to the American Art Union that year. His still lifes were very popular, and he sold nine more paintings to that organization before it closed in 1852. Shortly after 1855, Roesen moved to Pennsylvania and eventually settled in Williamsport, a small city with a booming lumber industry. There his paintings were enthusiastically commissioned and purchased by wealthy residents.
During the past decades scholars have identified more than 100 of Roesen’s works. About two-thirds of his paintings are still lifes of fruit, and the other third are floral arrangements.
The still life tradition achieved an increasingly important role in American painting during the mid-nineteenth century. Many German still life artists, including Severin Roesen, came to the United States where their work enjoyed great popularity. The vibrant and realistic rendering of each floral detail and texture was very appealing to the early Victorian audience. This growing interest in still life painting coincided with an expanding and prosperous middle class in cities and led to a broader patronage of art.