A Rose a Day No.50

Today in my 50th and final post on roses.

Ever since I first saw this photograph by Edward Steichen, it’s haunted me. It’s entitled ‘Heavy Roses, Voulangis, France’ and was taken in 1914. Talk about funereal!

This from a Christie’s auction catalogue (October, 2018):

Edward Steichen’s Heavy Roses, Voulangis was taken in 1914, shortly before the break of World War I, and is believed to be the last photograph Steichen would take in France before fleeing the German invasion. At the time, Steichen, whose early artistic aspirations veered toward painting, was still employing a Pictorialist sensibility in his photographic practice. By that year, Steichen had taken some of his most celebrated images, among them, In Memoriam, 1901; Rodin, Le Penseur, Paris, 1902 and The pond – Moonlight, 1904, all depicting classical subjects—from noble portraits to sweeping landscapes—in a variety of sumptuous printing techniques—from gum bichromate to platinum. 

Likewise, Heavy Roses, Voulangis depicts a closely cropped arrangement of overlapping plump roses in varying degrees of bloom and decay. The flowers in the photograph appear to be actual size, heightening their near-tactile quality and relatability, subsequently appearing as an extension of the viewers’ immediate reality. At the time of this image, Europe was at the brink of war, and the flowers, it has been suggested, were emblematic of the pending disaster and the loss in livelihood; an homage to passing beauty. Of the poignant, powerful ability of photographs for storytelling, Steichen would later write, 'I am no longer concerned with photography as an art form. I believe it is potentially the best medium for explaining man to himself and to his fellow man.'

The roses seem to be picture of Centifolia - the ‘Provence Rose’.

Image and text: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/edward-steichen-heavy-roses-voulangis-france-4