Footnotes

Provenance
Cyril Andrews, pre-1945, from whom acquired by the family of the present owners
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
London, Carfax Gallery, Roger Fry: Flowerpieces, November 1917

Literature
'Gossip from New York', Colour Magazine, May 1918, p.87 (col.ill.)

Roger Fry held a deep interest in botany and painted flower subjects throughout his life. However, it was during the early war years that the artist focused intently on still-life, culminating in the 1917 exhibition at the Carfax Gallery titled, Roger Fry: Flowerpieces, in which the present work was included. Unable to travel as a result of the conflict, his series of still life paintings demonstrate the qualities of balance and completeness that he admired in the later work of Cézanne, who arrived at 'the purest terms of structural design' (Burlington Magazine, 1917, 31, pp.52-61). In correspondence with Charles Vildrac, Fry commented that 'I am particularly working on still-life, trying to discover a more absolute construction and the ultimate simplification of all relationships' (Roger Fry quoted in Frances Spalding, Roger Fry, Art and Life, Black Dog Books, Norwich, 1999, p.191).

Many of the most celebrated still-life's from this period are today held in public collections, including The Blue Bottle (Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art), Still Life with Biscuit Tin and Pots (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) and The Madonna Lily (Bristol City Art Gallery). In Poinsettias in a Vase, Fry places the entire plant, without cutting away extraneous foliage, within the central pictorial space. This design was influenced by his reading of Okakura Kakuzo's Book of Tea, which also advised that nothing should be placed nearby to detract from the flowers unless the object is aesthetically balanced with them. As Fry himself had stated in 1910, 'Modern European art has always maltreated flowers' (Ibid, p.191). In the present work, a strong black section of fabric dominates the right-hand side of the composition, contrasting with the blue/green pastel shades of the central area, which frames the elegance of the tall flower stems, and the soft treatment afforded to them by Fry. The placement of the papers on the wall at the left-hand side, one marked with initials 'RF', are mimicked by the leaves of the poinsettia plant which sits atop a mauve ledge adding to an overall sense of modernism in the colour scheme which is fitting for the period.

In reviewing Roger Fry's 1917 exhibition at the Carfax Gallery, Walter Richard Sickert commented that 'it is not exceeding a reasonable limit to characterise these twenty paintings as serious and thoughtful work, full of feeling for the possible dignity of this branch of still-life, and showing appreciation of colour, growth and pictorial structure, expressed without the tedium of over-literal representation' (Burlington Magazine, 1918, 32, p.38). Poinsettias in a Vase has been retained within the same private family collection for the best part of a century and is presented in an original artist's hand painted frame, bearing the influence of the recently formed Omega Workshops which Fry had formed in 1913.

We are grateful to Richard Shone for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

Please note that this work has been requested for loan to the forthcoming exhibition Roger Fry at Charleston in Firle, 15 November-15 March 2026.