Charles Caryl Coleman

Still Life with Peach Blossoms

Still Life with Peach Blossoms typifies Japonisme, the Western adaptation of Eastern aesthetics that was popular in the late nineteenth century. Coleman displays his interest in the ornate by borrowing distinctly Japanese designs, such as the depiction of a floating carp on the uchiwa, or bamboo fan.

Coleman’s inclusion of peach blossoms recalls the traditional Chinese bird-and-flower motif. The rich background of the work evokes Turkish tapestry patterns, and the bulbous shape of the teal vase echoes the forms of ancient Greek and Roman pottery. Coleman’s configuration rests on an Indian patkas, a traditional Sikh head covering. The tenets of the Aesthetic Movement, which emphasized the creation of beautiful objects solely for the sake of aesthetic pleasure, may be appreciated in the painting’s hand-carved frame, which includes decorative elements of the Italian Renaissance.

Still Life with Peach Blossoms is a tantalizing mixture of cultural references that embodies the cosmopolitanism of the American Gilded Age.