From the collection of the Harvard Art Museum, The Spring Bouquet oil painting on canvas measures 104.8 cm x 80.3 cm, 41 1/4 inches x 31 5/8 inches—almost four feet tall by almost three feet wide.

The Spring Bouquet is signed and dated 1866. This makes it an early Renoir, done before he took to Impressionism, returned to Classicism, then went back to Impressionism. In The Spring Bouquet, each petal is carefully rendered, and each leaf is leaf-shaped. Later Renoir will merely suggest flowers and leaves by scattering light around the canvas, but in The Spring Bouquet Renoir brings realistic textures in the classical style to the canvas. Renoir was only twenty-five years old when he completed this painting—already he is exhibiting an exceptional eye—for composition, light and a sense of aliveness.

The overall feeling of the arrangement is loose, but the piece is very carefully composed--Renoir’s skill as a painter brings an effortlessness to the piece which belies its strong structure. Renoir will go on to be known for his sensual nudes and light-filled scenes of charming people, but even here in the early days, we see his sensitive observation of light and shadow, his drive and native talent. Here we see his classical training shining in tightly controlled chaos.

In The Spring Bouquet, the overall triangle shape of the arrangement rests on the horizontal support. The flowers in the foreground balance out the deep violet shade of the background. Not only the flowers themselves, but the entire canvas is artfully arranged. The diagonal line leading from the bottom right corner and the strong horizontal line where the vase meets the table provide a clean contrast to the profusion of flowers.The blue tending towards violet of the lilac and iris is repeated in the blue of the Japanese-style vase, sparks of orange and yellow provide the perfect color contrast. Giving all this a stage on which to perform: the dark black of the shadows between the flowers. Later Renoir would say, “I’ve spent forty years discovering black is the queen of all colors.” Even in his early work, the use of black adds power and impact.

Renoir painted flowers at every stage of his career, few of his paintings have no flowers. But The Spring Bouquet is one of the few where flowers are the subject. Three years after painting The Spring Bouquet he painted Spring Flowers, his careful rendering is still apparent, but he shows an increasing sensitivity to light and loose form. With Gladiolas in a Vase, painted ten years later, Renoir uses the same composition, with an even less precise, less controlled hand, having by this time merged his impressionistic style with the earlier classical style.

The Japanese vase in The Spring Bouquet gives us a glimpse of the upcoming wave for all things “oriental” that will influence nearly every artist of the time. Influenced by Japan exhibiting for the first time at the International Exposition in 1867 and a yearning for far-flung places, the vase in the painting is similar to the one in Monet’s later 1883 painting Dahlias. The fascination in France with all things Asian lasted for at least a half a century, and by painting the flowers in this particular vase, Renoir shows that he is in this game to last.

As was noted in the exhibition catalog at the time of the 1988 exhibition, Renoir Retrospective, "For an artist enamoured with color, flowers provide a perfect subject -- infinitely varied, malleable to any arrangement. Several of Renoir's most beautiful paintings... are flower pieces. Renoir himself said that when painting flowers he was able to paint more freely and boldly, without the mental effort he made with a model before him. Also, he found the painting of flowers to be helpful in painting human figures."