Auguste Renoir - Bouquet of Chrysanthemums 1881

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From The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:
Renoir felt that he had greater freedom to experiment in still lifes than in figure paintings. "When I paint flowers, I feel free to try out tones and values and worry less about destroying the canvas," he told the writer Georges Rivière. "I would not do this with a figure painting since there I would care about destroying the work."

Picasso revised the painting a great deal before settling on the final arrangement: he
first depicted Harlequin without ruffs at the neck or cuffs; a large glass stood on the
table where the match striker now appears; Harlequin's bicorne hat originally rested
behind his right hand; and the floral wallpaper was more extensive and not hidden by
the high banquette. - art-Picasso.com

While van Gogh waited for Paul Gauguin to join him in the Provençal
city of Arles in 1888, Vincent van Gogh painted five audaciously
decorative still lifes of sunflowers in simple earthenware jugs. At least
two of these canvases decorated Gauguin's bedroom when he reached
the city late in October, and the French painter came to admire
them greatly. - art-vanGogh.com

art-Renoir.com

Auguste Renoir 1841-1919