Pitcher of Flowers 

Guy Bardone created this color lithograph titled ‘Pitcher of Flowers’. Its abstracted forms may appear to distance it from any particular social reality, but a closer look reveals the context of its making. Consider the printmaking process: lithography enables the wide circulation of images, which has had powerful social and political implications since the 19th century. It allowed for art to reach a broader public, moving it beyond the elite circles of private collectors and museums. Bardone, a French artist, painted in a time of shifting social and political landscapes in France. Looking at the cultural history of postwar France, we see a rise in interest in domestic life and simple pleasures. Historians use a range of sources, including exhibition reviews and artists’ biographies, to explore these connections between art and society, and to appreciate the public role of art.