Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose

Carnation, Lily, Lily,Rose by John Singer Sargent is such a fabulous painting with such a rich story of Sargent's brilliancy using light. It took Sargent two years to complete this portrait mainly because he only had a couple of minutes ever day from August - November during the time the sun was setting. He wanted to capture the moment the sun's descending rays hit the flowers, but not just that; he captures the lighting of the Chinese lanterns during the moment the sun was setting allowing the light from the lanterns to glow, but the darkness had not yet blanketed the scene allowing the lanterns to be the predominate light- he captured the precise moment the sun was setting and the glow of the lanterns became part of the scene.

The name of the portrait came from a popular song during that time telling of a lovely maiden who wore a wreath made of carnations, lily's and roses. The wreath's beauty described her loveliness: He hands were white as a lily, her lips crimson red, and her cheeks pink as a rose.

Read the complete story of how he drew the most replicated postcard paining here.