‘Still Life with Roses’ was painted by Konstantin Korovin in 1916. It was created in the Gurzuf village on the Black Sea shore, where the artist used to live in his house in the 1910s.

During that period, Korovin was quite taken by the still life genre. Roses became his favorite subject — there is a whole series of paintings with these elegant flowers. Their richness is rendered by the impeccable use of red and pink hues. Even though roses are usually monotonous, Korovin managed to capture their slightest tints that became visible in the light.

The process of choosing an appropriate vessel for every single bouquet was very meticulous — Korovin even brought his extensive collection of vases and pitchers to his dacha. He used to say that it was very important to place the flowers in the right vase, otherwise ‘they will not speak’. His still lifes were always rich in color and eye-catching, with the shiny surfaces reflecting the objects that glinted with various shades. Korovin was nicknamed the ‘Mozart of Art’ by his contemporaries for his speed of painting and love for bright colors.

In July 1916, Korovin wrote from Gurzuf to a painter and his friend Ivan Kraitor:

Korovin told his friend that in Crimea his favorite roses bloomed in June, so he was unable to paint from life in July. When he left for Moscow or Saint Petersburg, he had to render them from memory which was especially difficult. The roses brought back blissful memories of Crimea, so despite the difficulties, Korovin would paint them everywhere, even in Paris. Sometimes, in the absence of fresh bouquets, he used paper ones — once they appeared on the canvas, it was impossible to trace the change. The paper flowers captivated him the same way as the fresh ones.

Korovin considered bringing joy into people’s lives to be the greatest mission of an artist. That explains why, even during the hardest periods of his life, Korovin’s works remained so rich in color and light. He became a leading painter of the ‘Russian impressionism’ — the unofficial name for the movement in Russian art that consisted of painters who drew inspiration from the French impressionists’ techniques.

As a rule, the Russian artists created their canvases en plein air in a single session, striving to capture the slightest changes in light and depict the glistening and the reflection of colors. The pictures were distinguished by visible, loose brush strokes and the absence of distinct contours. Konstantin Korovin created a whole series of such paintings: views of Gurzuf and southern cities, Parisian landscapes and, of course, still lifes with roses.