Signed, titled and dated on the reverse
In From Kitchen Sink to Shangri-La James Hyman writes that:
The image of a flower and a vase is a recurring motif in Greaves's work, from prints to drawings to vast canvases. Through such images one can trace Greaves's preoccupations from the Braque-ian concerns of the early 1960s and the Matissean refinement of the mid 1960s, through to the increasingly heraldic imagery of later years, which at times has the emblematic quality of a florist's sign. Indeed, by the mid 1970s these flower paintings were often extremely decorative... (p.125)
The vibrancy of the colour in Large Vase (Yellow) (1976) could be the influence of Greaves's trip to Provence in Southern France in 1967 with the photographer Dave Mindlin. After this time his work revealed an engagement with Van-Gogh, as is mentioned in an interview with James Hyman:
Along with the celebratory character of van Gogh's Provence work, which was more highly chromatic than before, I saw him as a kind of self victim van Gogh's work was about high chroma but also hysteria, and my own work was somewhat critical of that. The suffering that he went through was something that I didn't share, that self martyrdom. I'm more detached and intellectually removed than that. But I did a lot of drawings around that theme so it must have had a significance that was heavy enough for me to go on doing it. (p.100)
The stems or stalks held in the vase in this painting seem to advance out of the picture frame into an indeterminate and infinite space, giving the impression of life and growth whilst heightening the use of tone and colour.
History
Derrick Greaves, Paintings and Drawings 1952 - 2002, James Hyman Gallery, 28 January - 4 March 2005.
Pop Classical: Derrick Greaves Paintings from the 70's, James Hyman Gallery, London, 30 March - 28 April 2006.
Literature
Derrick Greaves: Paintings and Drawings 1952 - 2002, James Hyman Gallery, London, 2003, (cat. 23), illustrated p.18.