CORNFLOWERS AND CARNATIONS, 1929
MAX MELDRUM
oil on canvas on board
38.0 x 46.0 cm
signed and dated lower right: Meldrum 1929
signed, dated, and inscribed with title verso: Max Meldrum / Paris 1929 / Cornflowers + Carnations
Estate of Max Meldrum, Melbourne
Thence by descent
Private collection, Melbourne
Paintings by Max Meldrum, Athenaeum Art Gallery, Melbourne, 18 – 29 August 1931, cat. 32
Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings by Max Meldrum, The Meldrum Gallery, Melbourne, 6 – 24 December 1932, cat. 28
Exhibition of Pictures by Max Meldrum, Athenaeum Art Gallery, Melbourne, 23 March – 17 April 1937, cat. 31
Max Meldrum and Family, Victorian Artists Society Gallery, Melbourne, 23 October – 4 November 1998, cat. 31 (as 'Wild Flowers')
We are grateful to Peter Perry for his assistance with this catalogue entry.
Although Meldrum painted mostly landscapes, streetscapes and river scenes with their bridges along the Seine while living in Paris for a second period from 1926 to 1931, he did undertake the occasional flower piece. This work, Cornflowers and Carnations, 1929 was exhibited in his solo exhibition at the Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne, held in August 1931 upon his return to Australia, and demonstrates Meldrum at his finest when painting the effect of light on his subject with the minimum of brushstrokes.