Wherever there are flowers, art is never far away. Consider the peony with its gigantic blossoms like soft pink clouds drifting across a summer sky. Or the poppy, with paper-thin red petals trembling in the wind.

What are they, and what do they tell us?

We believe that even the most precise scientific descriptions of flowers leave something essential unsaid. They tell us very little (or nothing) about beauty, wonder, fleetingness, or fragility. At the same time, many artists, such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Vanessa Bell, place floral motifs at the heart of their work. By painting them, they speak about so much more — far beyond flowers alone.