La Vase Bleu

Provenance

Estate of the artist
Adelson Galleries, New York, New York

Exhibited

M. Knoedler & Co, New York, New York, Floral Etudes, Drawings, and Pastels, 1933
Sullivan Goss Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, Leon Dabo: Toutes Les Fleurs, August 2–October 28, 2012

Literature

William Gerdes, Cody Hartley, Frank Goss and Nathan Vonk, The Pastels of Leon Dabo (Santa Barbara:
Sullivan Goss Gallery, 2012), 13, 65, 66.

Note

Leon Dabo initially gained recognition for his atmospheric tonal landscapes. Though widely
known for his restrained landscapes, he began exploring floral subjects in pastel as early as the 1910s.
Works such as La Vase Bleu reveal a striking shift in his artistic language—characterized by vivid color,
botanically legible yet freely rendered flowers, strongly modeled vases, and chromatically intense
backgrounds.

Although these floral pastels were kept private for a long time and never exhibited, their public debut
at Dabo’s 1933 solo exhibition at M. Knoedler & Co. in New York took critics by surprise. The New
York Times, in its review of his exhibition, described it as “a distinct contribution to be associated with
the flower harmonies of Odilon Redon and of Fantin-Latour,” highlighting Dabo’s unexpected yet
resonant alignment with the poetic and chromatic sensibilities of these earlier masters.”