In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the art of painting was classified hierarchically by genres. From top to bottom: history painting and religious, then genre scenes, portraits, landscapes, and finally relegated to the bottom the still life painting
The term refers to a still life subject with inanimate objects (fruit, flowers, vases, etc.) or dead animals.
The term appears only at the end of the seventeenth century.
In Spain, the term is bodegones lifes. They are mainly in the form of the Vanities Catholic morality, while northern Europe, Protestant, denying religious subjects and devoted himself to painting bourgeois through landscapes and still life.
Still life becomes a tool for two main religious powers of the moment.
But still life is also an opportunity to demonstrate the skill of the artist.
In France, the term "still life" appears in the eighteenth century.
Beginning of the XIX,th century, a school will specialize in particular painting of flowers, floral design in the capital of Lyon (related to the industry of silk weaving and its design).
Thanks to substantial orders from Bonaparte and the restoration of a decree stipulating the class of flowers at the Beaux-Arts de Lyon, the silk production increases and demand for designers and decorators increases accordingly.
Indeed, one of the goals of the School of Fine Arts is to train artists whose taste and talent are mainly devoted to the manufacturing of silk fabrics.
Care is taken to train young designer for three years before they can integrate it into the class of flower.
In addition to the designer, working for the factory is forced to anonymity, he works porcelain, wallpaper or silk.
To stimulate students each year the Friends of the Arts of Lyon (founded in 1821) organizes exhibitions and an art contest where the winner of Manufactures can expect new opportunities.
The painting of flowers continues to be a specialty of Lyon with remarkable talents, the multiplicity of techniques and floral works.
But from 1830 the provincial idiosyncrasies tend to fade, painters look to Paris, where the International Expositions, the Salons of which depend on control of the state, Sèvres and Gobelins, draw them irreparably
Most important flower and still life painters :
Frans Snyders
Pieter Boel
Jan Brueghel dit de Velours
Jan de Heem
Jacob van Es
Frans Snyders
Salomon Van Ruysdael
Zurbarán
Caravage
Louise Moillon
Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer
Jean Siméon Chardin
Alexandre-François Desportes
Jean-Baptiste Oudry
Delacroix
Manet
Cézanne
