Le Printemps, II

Le Printemps, II
Joseph Raffael
February 22, 1933
Artist Biography
Acquisition Number: 2014.8
Medium: Watercolor on paper
Size: 69" x 44"
Date: 1988
Credit: Gift of Dr. Leon & Barbara Rosenberg

Raffael moved to France with his wife, Lannis, in 1986. "Le Printemps" is French for spring. Raffael has a lovely garden in France that inspires all of his artwork, and "Le Printemps, II" was not only inspired by nature, but by Lannis as well. On a Sunday morning in France, Raffael and Lannis discovered some floral dresses by René Dehry when they went to an open air market. Raffael then began to paint a whole series of Lannis sleeping in these floral dresses as a tapestry of flowers, painted from photographs. The series is called "Lannis in Sieste." Raffael says that "Le Printemps II is Lannis becoming the garden, merging with it." Their cat, of course, adds a fun, relatable element and can be found in a couple of the paintings from this series. Sadly, Lannis passed away in 2019 after a long period of health crises. Before her death, Raffael completed a painting in her honor, and since her passing, made a series of paintings titled "Elegy" of close-up flowers, stating that he had a heightened sense that Lannis was now integral to the process.