James Bolivar Manson

Pinks in a Vase

c.1940

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

Not on display

Artist: James Bolivar Manson 1879–1945
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 508 x 406 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1942
Reference: N05320

Catalogue entry

Entry

Manson’s flower pictures appear to have been painted in his home at 98 Hampstead Way in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Frequently, they include elements of furniture that indicate the domestic setting. The checked table-cloth in Pinks in a Vase also appears in Still Life with Red Roses of 1939 (private collection).1 Here the table is placed against Manson’s bookshelves, and it seems likely he moved the table around for different paintings: in Pinks in a Vase it is in a different place or room. In the background the frame of a painting is just visible on the wall. On the table to the right of the vase is a tin with a yellow label; on the left is something difficult to read but may be intended simply to be wrinkles in the tablecloth.

Of Manson’s love of nature, his friend R.R. Tatlock wrote that the artist ‘found himself inspired most enjoyably when confronted with Nature’s most abundantly luscious gifts’.2 Likewise, the critic Charles Marriott wrote in the foreword to Manson’s 1925 exhibition:

Of all pictures, the kind of pictures painted by J.B. Manson should stand least in need of introduction, because they are addressed directly to enjoyment. Thought has gone into their making, but they are as independent of thinking for their appreciation as is music or something good to eat.3

It is difficult to ascertain the date Pinks in a Vase was painted with any certainty, as the work is not dated and Manson made many flower paintings over a long period. Manson was Director of the Tate Gallery from 1930 until 1938. This painting was purchased from the artist in 1942, perhaps in part owing to Manson’s financial difficulties,4 which suggests that it was probably painted around that time.

Robert Upstone and Helena Bonett
February 2011