Camellia in a Japanese Bowl

According to Mark D. Mitchell, "La Farge collected Japanese art and incorporated Asian aesthetic principles and objects in his compositions from the very beginning of his career, around 1860, when he married the great-niece of Commodore Matthew Perry, who had opened trade between Japan and the West in 1854...La Farge's interest in Asian aesthetics continued...becoming a vehicle for some of his most expressive and enduring works." (The Art of American Still Life: Audubon to Warhol, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2015, p. 201). The present work is no exception, with a blossoming camellia placed in a Japanese bowl, executed with the expressive brushwork characteristic of La Farge's oeuvre. A contemporary critic was likely describing Camellia in a Japanese Bowl when writing, "Subtle and original, it is so exquisite in painting that one can almost breathe the odor of the soft and beautiful [flower]." ("Art Notes," Round Table, March 12, 1864, p. 202)