In his still-life paintings, Coleman often mixed objects from many cultures: Persian fabrics, Turkish carpets, Venetian vases, Japanese fans, many from his own collection. In Still Life with Azaleas and Apple Blossoms, however, he was inspired both in his composition and his choice of objects by the contemporary fashion for Japanese art. Coleman chose a tall, narrow canvas to suggest a Japanese hanging scroll or the panel of a screen. His apple blossoms in a yellow vase intertwine with azaleas in a lustrous Japanese bronze repoussé pot, against a background of kimono fabric. Even Coleman’s initials in monogram in the lower right and the inscriptions “1878” and “Roma” in the gold leaf rectangular cartouches on the lower left recall the seals often found on Japanese scrolls.
