Primula auricula
The Violet Auricula (Primula auricula) is shown here still growing in its terracotta pot, three neat trusses of bloom rising above a rosette of thick, blue-green leaves. Each flower follows the classic auricula form: a ring of deep violet petals edged in white, gathered around a warm orange-yellow eye and dusted with the fine white farina characteristic of the species.
Auricula Cultivation
Auriculas were among the most prized “florists’ flowers” of European horticulture from the 17th Century onwards, cultivated with real rivalry by amateur growers across Britain and the Low Countries. Prize specimens were displayed on tiered wooden “auricula theatres” built specifically to show off their compact, symmetrical trusses, and the flower’s velvety, powdery petals made it a favourite subject for painters recording the horticultural fashions of the day.
This study depicts the plant still in its pot rather than as a cut stem, a choice that reads more as a portrait of a cultivated specimen than a formal botanical record. The leaves are rendered with particular care for their leathery texture and pale, waxy bloom, a quality auricula enthusiasts valued nearly as highly as the flowers themselves, and the pot and saucer are painted with the same close attention, suggesting the plant was recorded much as it was grown and shown.
The artist and exact date of this painting are unrecorded, so its precise origins cannot be confirmed here.