Finding flowers in art
How many flowers can you spot at Lady Lever Art Gallery?
Spring (Apple Blossoms)
John Everett Millais
This painting in our main hall takes its name from the orchard of apple blossoms in the background. However you can find many other flowers in the painting when you take a closer look.
The basket on the left has (amongst other things) periwinkles (violet-blue), primroses, violets and polyanthus (orange/red) flowers in it.
The girl in blue to the left has violets and yellow primroses in her hair.
The kneeling girl has what appear to be lilac flowers in her tied-back hair.
Just beyond the wall in the orchard, yellow flower heads of what may well be cat’s-ear can be seen above the grass.
This girl at the back has a garland of deep blue spring gentians on her head. This reminds me of children’s games making garlands with daisy chains when I was young.
In the basket on the right there are bluebells, cowslips (the yellow flowers) and the odd dandelion.
The Beguiling of Merlin
Edward Coley Burne-Jones
Merlin lies tangled in a hawthorn tree, but there are more flowers in this painting if you look closely...
The blue flowers in the foreground look like Siberian iris (Iris sibirica).
The Daphnephoria
Frederic Leighton
The revellers in this painting are so focussed on their singing they might not have noticed some interesting flowers at the side of their path...
In the foreground of this painting is nerium or oleander (Nerium oleander), a shrub often seen around the Mediterranean which was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans.
It has pink or white flowers and although the plant is poisonous, it was supposed by some in ancient times to be an antidote to snake venom!
Next to the nerium are small fig trees with their large, lobed leaves.
The young man in a white robe near the front of the procession is carrying an olive branch and, like the others, has a bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) wreath and a gold crown on his head.
There are also laurel branches lying scattered on the ground.
Laurel is a symbol of the god Apollo and the Daphnephoria was a festival to honour him.
Bay laurel is a herb and is often used as a food flavouring today.
The Enchanted Garden
John William Waterhouse
This painting was left unfinished when the artist died in 1917, which makes it hard to confidently identify the plants and flowers in the picture. This is most noticable where there is a lack of foreground detail in the ladies’ dresses and on the left of the scene.
In another unfinished detail the white flowers in the centre, which are possibly lilies, don’t appear to have a stem and look like they are floating!
In the centre is a rose bush, whose flowers the woman in red is bending down to smell.
The flowers on the lower right by the fountain look like a mixture of orange-red Oriental Poppies and pink Opium Poppies.
Behind the people is what I think is a peach or an apple tree. The colours of the fruit are reflected in the appearance of the people nearby.
Golden Gorse
David Murray
Gorse, also known as furze or whin, has bright yellow flowers that smell like coconut.
A little piece of folklore about gorse says, "When gorse is out of bloom, kissing is out of season."
The joke is that gorse can be found in flower in any month of the year!
May Morning, Magdalen Tower
William Holman Hunt
The boy in centre of picture is holding a white-flowered lily stem – it looks like Madonna Lily.
Lilies are mentioned in the Bible, and in Christianity, white lilies are supposed to represent qualities like purity and virtue, both embodied by the Virgin Mary.
Roses are also a symbol of Mary.
The gold-coloured bowl in the foreground contains many flowers -
white and yellow lilies,
pink and red double-flowered roses,
red and yellow tulips
and bluebells.
Scattered by the bowl are yellow daffodils, tulips with yellow/red petals and pink/red ivy-leaved geraniums (pelargoniums).
To the right there’s also what look like sprigs of apple tree and hawthorn, both with blossom on them.
The Little Speedwell's Darling Blue
John Everett Millais
The girl is holding Germander Speedwell, also known as Bird’s-eye Speedwell.
On the ground the large, daisy-like flower is an Ox-eye Daisy. The yellow flowers could be several things - Cat’s-ear or Rough Hawkbit (which both look like Dandelions), or even Corn Marigold.
The pink flowers with five petals on the ground next to them are Dog Roses.
Gourds in Chinese ceramics
Room 8
Two of the vases in our Chinese ceramics display are shaped like, and decorated with, images of bottle gourd plants. The gourds depicted by these vases are a kind of squash that grow on a vine (Lagenaria siceraria).
Bottle gourds have been an auspicious symbol in China for centuries. They represent doctors and are also a symbol of Shou Xing, one of the Chinese star gods, who represents longevity and good fortune.
In China the dried, hollow gourds are still used as water containers and often decorated with imagery to make collectable objects. They are decorated by burning patterns and images onto them (pyrography)
In the next room, in the display about Confucianism and Daoism you can also find a large vase with a double-gourd shape that is a symbol of the god Shou Xing.
© Pete Carr
© Pete Carr
© Pete Carr
© Pete Carr
The Garden of the Hesperides
Frederic Leighton
The flowers in the foreground that the two white egrets are standing amongst are nerium or oleander, the same plant as in The Daphnephoria.
Thyrsus around the gallery
A thyrsus is a staff made from a fennel stalk, wound with ivy leaves or grape vines, and topped with a pine cone or artichoke. The staff is associated with Dionysus and would be carried during festivals and ceremonies in ancient Greece.
The fireplace in room 4 has a large central panel featuring two cherubs - one carrying a thyrsus – surrounded by decorated corners with oak leaves and acorns. You can also find thyrsus on a plaque and a vase in the 'Vase mania' display to the right of the fireplace.
In room 3 there is a fireplace with Wedgwood side panels that both feature a thyrsus, they are topped with artichokes, wound with grape vines and decorated with a ribbon.
At the other end of the gallery in room 30 there is also a commode that has Wedgwood medallions with Bacchanalian boys and Pan carrying a thyrsus.
Wedgwood plaque from room 4
Wedgwood plaque from room 4
How many can you find?
These are just some of the flowers that are hidden amongst the artworks at the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Why not see if you can find these and more when you next have a look around?
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