Self-reflexive 19th Century Watercolor Rose with Torn and Taped Stem hummingbird all painted yellow

all painted yellow

16" tall x 5 1/2" widest x 5 1/4" deepest

which the student

holding heart to her chest

Self-reflexive 19th Century Watercolor Rose with Torn and Taped Stem hummingbird all painted yellowI am a bit obsessed with this one. It is a fine, c. mid 19th century watercolor of a rose, which was very precisely cutout and pasted down onto this piece of card (by it's original maker I believe). But in that cutting process, I presume, the paper stem of the watercolor rose tore, and so they pasted it down above. And so, the presence of that broken stem, which casts just a bit of a shadow onto the page, tells us not just that the rose itself was cut