Landscape with Poppies
Peter Blume
American, 1906–1992
1939
An oil-on-canvas painting in which Peter Blume elevates a small patch of rocky ground—bright poppies, curled dead leaves, and moss—into a meticulously observed, quietly uncanny landscape that balances botanical exactness with psychological stillness.
You first notice the luminous orange poppies standing fragile and alive against a muted, finely detailed field of gray rocks and browned, crumpled leaves, creating an intimate scene that feels both naturalistic and eerily suspended.
Blume’s work marries precise, almost scientific realism with a subtly surreal mood, positioning him between American regionalist traditions and European modernism and showing how landscape could carry psychological and historical tension on the eve of World War II.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
18 x 25 1/8" (45.7 x 63.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Accession
391.1941
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
