Artists Inspired by Flowers

The humble beauty of the daisy inspired artists from Botticelli to Warhol but perhaps most famously in Millais’s Ophelia, the Pre-Raphaelite masterpiece image recognised as one of Britain’s favourite paintings.

Hundreds of scarlet red poppies gently sway across the impressionist landscapes of Monet and Cassatt, and this striking flower was a subject favoured by Matisse, Georgia O’Keefe and Bloomsbury group founders Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant.

Van Gogh’s glowing sunflower series are perhaps the most famous flower paintings of all time, but this cheerful flower also inspired golden, glowing works by Gauguin and Klimt, and are at the centre of Dorothea Tanning’s unsettling surrealist painting Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.