Artwork
Orchids
Orchids is a watercolor work on paper by the Surrealist artist Ithell Colquhoun. It dates from 1938 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
This small watercolor shows three pink orchids on a dark background. The petals look almost real, but the shadows are too sharp and deep.
Colquhoun painted this in 1938 after studying with Surrealists in Paris. She mixed science and magic in her work, making flowers feel alive in an odd way.
Try her other orchids at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Overview
Orchids is a small watercolor executed in 1938 that depicts three pink orchid blossoms against a dark field. The rendering balances a lifelike surface texture with unusually stark shadows, giving the flowers a heightened, almost uncanny presence.
Subject & Meaning
The work functions as a detailed botanical study while simultaneously invoking the sensual and mystical qualities often associated with orchids. The artist’s interest in the erotic potential of flora and its symbolic ties to occult practices informs the composition’s tension between realism and the uncanny.
Technique & Style
Rendered in watercolor, the piece combines precise rendering of petals with sharply defined chiaroscuro that intensifies the contrast between light and dark. This approach reflects the influence of Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, whose naturalistic yet dreamlike treatment of subjects is echoed in the work’s blend of observation and imagination.
History & Provenance
Created after the artist’s 1931 studies in Paris with Surrealist circles, the painting belongs to a series of flower studies begun in 1932. The artist, born in India in 1906 and later active in Britain, joined the British Surrealist group in 1939 but withdrew a year later due to an ultimatum from E.L.T. Mesens, choosing instead to maintain ties with occult societies.
Context
The piece emerges from a period when the artist merged Surrealist aesthetics with esoteric interests, a synthesis that characterized much of her output until her death in 1988. The watercolor reflects broader 1930s explorations of the subconscious, where scientific observation and magical symbolism often intersected.
Artist & collection
Artist
Ithell Colquhoun was a British painter, occultist, poet and author. Stylistically her artwork was affiliated with Surrealism. In the early 1930s she met André Breton in Paris, and later started working with Surrealist…
