Sun and Moonflowers

[kavery]

Sun and Moonflowers

In the late 19th Century sunflowers became very fashionable. In particular they came to represent the aesthetic movement that championed 'art for art's sake' and was headed by Oscar Wilde. When Sun and Moonflowers was painted the aesthetic movement was all the rage.

Firstly, the two languid girls in the painting show their affiliation to the movement with the lovingly snipped and tended sunflowers. Secondly the colours blue and white, through their association with Japanese porcelain, were considered alongside yellow to be the signature colours of this artistic movement.

Not only do the flowers stand in a blue and white Japanese vase but the women sit, perfectly poised, in blue and white dresses.

George Dunlop Leslie
1835-1921
The London-born son of painter Charles Robert Leslie achieved his aim of painting "pictures from the sunny side of English domestic life". His speciality was bright paintings of girls doing household chores. He studied at the Royal Academy where he exhibited his work annually from 1857. In 1868 he became an associate of the Royal Academy, and eight years later an academician.