There’s something about flowers that just makes a room feel different.
Even a simple bouquet sitting in a vase can make an ordinary day feel a little more special. I think that’s part of what I love about Renoir’s Jetée de roses .
At first glance, it’s just a painting of roses. Nothing complicated. Nothing dramatic. Just a beautiful bunch of flowers.
But the more I looked at it, the more I started thinking about why Renoir chose to paint something so simple.
Jetée de roses was painted around 1914–1915, near the end of Renoir’s life. By this point, he was dealing with severe arthritis and had difficulty painting, but he continued to do what he had always loved. He painted.
And he painted flowers.
I don't know about you, but there’s something I find really sweet about that.
Renoir lived through some pretty difficult times, and yet he kept coming back to things that were beautiful. Gardens. People. Light. Flowers. The little things that make life feel worth noticing.
And you can see that in this painting.
The roses aren't painted in a super precise, realistic way. The colours almost blend into each other. There are soft pinks, creams, yellows and reds, all layered together. When you look closely, you can see the individual brushstrokes, but when you step back, it all comes together as one big, beautiful bouquet.
It almost feels like Renoir wasn't trying to capture every single flower perfectly.
He was trying to capture the feeling of looking at them.
And honestly, I think that's something we could all use a little more of.
We are so used to rushing through things.
We take a picture of something beautiful instead of actually looking at it. We listen to half a song while doing three other things. We walk past flowers without really noticing them because we're thinking about what we need to do next.
Sometimes I think we forget that noticing things is part of living too.
That's one of the reasons I love old paintings.
Someone, somewhere, thought something was beautiful enough to stop and paint it.
And now, more than a hundred years later, we get to stop and look at it too.
So when you look at Jetée de roses this month, don't worry about understanding Impressionism or knowing every detail about Renoir.
Just look at the roses.
Look at the colours. Look at the messy little brushstrokes. Look at how something as ordinary as flowers was worth an artist's time.
And maybe let it remind you to look for some of those little things in your own life too.
The flowers on your kitchen table.
The sunset you almost missed.
The song you haven't listened to in years.
A handwritten note from someone you love.
The little things don't have to be important to everyone else to be important to you.
Sometimes, they're the things we'll remember most.