Roze hortensia (Pink Hydrangea)

A great mass of pink hydrangeas crowds a round glass vase, the blooms so densely packed they seem to lean and press against one another, each tiny four-petalled floret picked out with a single pale highlight. Wiedijk sets them against a deep, shadowed ground so the pink glows almost from within, and lets the clear vase reveal the green tangle of stems standing in the water below. On the wooden ledge a white cloth is folded back to show its lace border, and a cut sprig and a few loosened leaves have fallen beside it. It is a picture of abundance at its fullest — and, in those fallen leaves and cut stems, a quiet reminder that such fullness is already beginning to pass.