Girl with Flowers 1896

Cuno Amiet made this painting, titled 'Girl with Flowers', using oil on canvas. The canvas gives a lovely, slightly textured surface on which to build up the image, and oil allows for easy blending of colors, which you can see in the many pinks of the flowers, and in the girl's auburn hair. There’s a lot of visible brushwork here, giving the whole painting a sense of energy and immediacy. If you look closely, you can see how the artist has used different kinds of brushstrokes to create different effects. The thick, short strokes in the flowers give them a sense of volume, while the longer, more fluid strokes in the background help to create a sense of depth. This kind of expressive painting was associated with modernism, which prized the artist’s individual touch. It’s a technique that rejects the slickness of industrial production, and affirms the value of craft and handwork. In this case, the handmade quality echoes the subject matter – a young girl amongst nature, picking flowers.