Pot-pourri

Pot-pourri, painted by Herbert James Draper in 1897 and held at Tate, depicts a subject that uses the title's French term — a mixture of dried flowers and herbs for scent — as a pretext for an interior scene of feminine activity that bridges the everyday domestic and the aestheticised. The Tate collection has held this work since its acquisition, situating it within the national collection of British art. The title Pot-pourri carried aesthetic connotations in the 1890s, associated with the decorative arts movement and the perfumed, sensually rich interiors that characterized Aesthetic Movement taste. Draper, better known for his mythological and marine subjects, demonstrates with this work his versatility as a painter of domestic and intimate subjects. The late 1890s were a period of intense activity for Draper, who was producing his most celebrated works — Ulysses and the Sirens (1894), The Lament for Icarus (1898) — alongside more modest domestic subjects. Tate's acquisition indicates the institutional regard in which Draper was held during this period of his greatest productivity and critical recognition.

An interior scene with a figure engaged in domestic activity allowed Draper to demonstrate his sensitivity to the subtleties of light in an enclosed space — the quality of light through a window, the warm glow of interior surfaces, and the textures of decorative objects.