A Forgotten Flower Painter: Marie-Alexandrine-Olimpe Arson

Marie-Alexandrine-Olimpe Arson, Flowering Cactus, about 1840. J. Paul Getty Museum

The Getty Museum has acquired a watercolor Flowering Cactus by Marie-Alexandrine-Olimpe Arson (1814–1901). Pupil, collaborator, and protégé of famed flower painter Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Arson became the youngest artist ever to win a medal at the Salon (she was 21). Yet Arson's brilliant career ended just five years later. In 1840, after the death of Redouté, she entered the convent of Neuilly-sur-Indre. There she taught drawing and lived another 61 years in obscurity. 

The Louvre holds nothing of Arson's output. The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, has her Bunch of Centifolio Roses, signed and dated 1832. That early watercolor has the plain white background associated with Redouté and botanical illustration. In later work Arson veered towards still life. A Basket of Flowers (1839), sold at Christie's in 2022, is shown on a ledge in the corner of a garden. The lush effect is completely different from the austerity of Flowering Cactus. Measuring 13-9/16 by 10-7/16 in., the Getty watercolor is signed on the terracotta pot and includes a trompe l'oeil water droplet. As far as I can tell, Flowering Cactus is only the second Arson work to enter a museum collection. 

Cacti had been known to Europeans since Columbus' voyages. It wasn't until the early 1800s that a profusion of ornamental species were imported to Europe. Redouté painted flowering cacti as if they were posies (LACMA has an example). But with its restricted palette and attention to the sculptural form of the cactus, Arson's image seems timeless and even modern.

At the Getty, Flowering Cactus augments a group of watercolor still lifes and nature studies by women artists Giovanna Garzoni, Maria Sibylla Merian, Barbara Regina Dietzsch, Sarah Stone, and Hilma af Klint.