Bouquet

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2025 oil paintings

This is a short series featuring a bouquet in the literal sense of the word. I give it to myself. This becomes a pretext for reflecting on the stage of life I am in. The bouquet motif in still-life paintings primarily symbolised transience, the fragility of life, and the fleeting nature of beauty, often as part of the vanitas tradition. This motif juxtaposed the beauty of wilted flowers with the inevitability of death, reminding us of the need for moral reflection on life. "Lemon" My favourite symbol inspired this small series of women holding and peeling lemons. My fascination comes from the Baroque period, during which lemons acquired a wide range of symbolic and contrasting meanings, including virtue, fidelity, and fertility. However, the bitter, sour taste of the yellow fruit alludes to deception and disappointment caused by external beauty, as well as the pain and bitterness of death. For this reason, I decided to present women with a pile of lemons, whose symbolism is particularly fitting to their life experiences.

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photos. Martin Coiffier

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