This print was pulled from a plate that Kentridge was using to test various etching techniques. The vase of flowers in the right hand side of the plate resembles images depicted in large-scale paintings in Indian ink that Kentridge makes from time to time – a relatively benign image that becomes the platform for experimentation with medium, substrate, connotative content, or simply a moment in which to rest. The left-hand side of the plate refers directly to Edouard Manet, who “during the final six months of his life, at age 51, devoted all his remaining creative energy to painting a series of floral still-lifes, each more beautiful and poignant than the one before. The paintings depict bouquets that friends brought to his Paris apartment while he was home-bound” (Read more about Manet’s Peonies here).
This print is also linked, in theme, to the large-scale hand-painted linocut, Peonies, which appears in the Universal Archive series.