Calla Lily,

1862

A versatile artist who during his long career produced sophisticated work in a range of media, La Farge first achieved success as a painter. He initially focused on landscapes and small-scale still-lifes such as Calla Lilly. Here, common, household-variety flowers—pansies, violets, a lily—appear set in a shallow red tray as if just cut from the garden and awaiting more formal placement in a vase. In contrast to other still-life practitioners, La Farge portrayed his largely floral subjects in asymmetrical and apparently random arrangements, influenced by Japanese aesthetics, of which he was an early student and admirer. Describing his method as deliberately "accidental," La Farge wrote: "Instead of arranging my subject, which is the usual studio way, I had it placed for me by chance, with any background and any light . . . as it happened to be."