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2024, “Endangered Art: Reclaiming a Legacy”
Emil Carlsen was born in Denmark and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. He spent time in Chicago working as a studio assistant and teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago. In the mid-1880s, Carlsen moved to Paris, where he helped spark renewed interest in the 18th-century still life painter Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. Carlsen produced many Chardin-inspired paintings of roses, which he sent back to art dealers in the United States.
Yellow Roses was cleaned and given a barrier coat of resin. Conservators in-painted areas of loss in the surface. They stabilized the frame corners and repaired ornament losses. The painting was installed into the frame with new backing and hardware.Label
(2025 post)
Welcome to Art Up Close, a new series that gives you a detailed look at a work from the Mulvane collection. 19th- and early 20th-century artist Emil Carlsen was known for still life paintings like this depiction of roses in a vase. Using loose brushstrokes in a harmonious palette of yellow, brown, and green, Carlsen suggests the flowers' delicate textures. He believed that painting inanimate objects could greatly benefit a developing artistic practice, and argued that still life painting is "the very surest road to absolute mastery over all technical difficulties."