This small-format watercolor from 1948 depicts red poppies in a vase. The viewer’s gaze is immediately drawn to the luminous red of the poppies. The poppy has a multifaceted symbolic meaning: it is the flower of remembrance, commemoration, and peace, but also stands for sleep and death.
Through its red color, it also represents love and passion. Through the simple design of the background—Evard chooses a white background and suggests a yellow tabletop below through a semicircular form—Evard makes this multilayered, fragile flower the protagonist of the painting.
The viewer can immerse themselves in the space-filling red.
In 1948, André Evard increasingly painted small-format floral still lifes in watercolor because during this phase he sought a return to intimate, concentrated motifs. After the turbulent years of the Second World War, he turned to smaller formats that could be executed more quickly, spontaneously, and with more nuanced colors.
Furthermore, watercolors allowed him to experiment with transparency and lightness—floral motifs were ideal for this, as they permitted organic structures and colors in compact, composed form.