GONCHAROVA, NATALIA (1881-1962) Still Life with Flowers, signed, further titled on the reverse. Oil on canvas, 41.5 by 27.5 cm. Provenance: Private collection, UK. Still Life with Flowers by Natalia Goncharova is one of a series of still lifes featuring flowers, her preferred genre during the 1920s and 1930s. The motif of blossoming not only fulfils an aesthetic role but is also endowed with symbolic significance. Marina Tsvetaeva talks about this symbol of regeneration in her recollections of Goncharova. “The idea of rebirth — not the idea but the living sensation, not just at some time but here and now, right now! This is what all her green shoots, her new leaves, her brushstrokes are about.” Still Life with Flowers is a splendid demonstration of Natalia Goncharova's superb skill. Her impressionistic works of this period — which lasted up until the outbreak of the Second World War — are marked by an expressive approach to composition, variety in form and line and diversity of texture. Still Life with Flowers is without doubt one of this artist's most distinctive works, filled with a sense of warmth and harmony.