NEW ORLEANS, LA.- Tilden Foley Gallery in New Orleans announced the discovery of a late 19th century Buddhist “visual sutra” by the American still life painter George W. Seavey (1841-1913). The circa 1890 still life of daffodils with a spray of violets may be the only 19th century Buddhist visual sutra in American Art history.

At first glance, the painting appears to be a beautiful still life painting. However, upon further examination the camouflaged partial face of a meditating Buddha can be seen within the flowers, created by the light and dark shading in the upper left quadrant of the painting. Once seen, the face is remarkably clear and three dimensional. Once the Buddha face is revealed in the flowers, it becomes clear that the painting is a visual teaching or “sutra” on several of the core concepts of Buddhism, namely clarity of mind, non-attachment, and stillness……leading to Buddha nature arising.

The crystalline glass vase with the clear water symbolizes Clarity of Mind. Non-Attachment is symbolized by the cut stalks of the flowers which are emphasized by the artist with glowing light. “Cut from the root” is a well known Buddhist phrase for non-attachment. And the eye flows naturally up the stalks to the “stillness” of the daffodils in all their floral beauty. At this point……Buddha nature manifests, as the partial face of a meditating Buddha appears in the lights and darks of the flowers.

The painting is visual poetry, a beautiful composition of layered painting and layered meaning, masterfully accomplished, and undiscovered for over a century until now. It is a remarkable fact that this painting was created approximately 130 years ago when Buddhism was relatively unknown in the USA.

The artist, George W. Seavey, died in 1913. He was one of the original “Flagler artists” who had shown his paintings in the hotel lobby of the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida. He also had a studio in Boston, MA, as well. The hotel was built by Henry Flagler, an industrialist and railroad baron, and was opened in 1888.

The artist offered and sold his paintings in the lobby of the hotel between 1890 until around 1910, making this still life a very early example in American painting to contain a depiction of a meditating Buddha, much less a visual sutra on basic Buddhist concepts. The Buddha face has apparently evaded notice for the past 130 years and is so well camouflaged as to be hidden from the casual viewer.

The Story of the Discovery of the Painting

The circumstances surrounding my purchase of the “Buddha in the Flowers” painting are still somewhat mysterious to me. I have been an art dealer for over 45 years and I deal mostly in abstraction and American modernist paintings of the early 20th century and contemporary art. This painting is a circa 1890 classic still life of flowers and not the usual kind of artwork that I sell. It was presented to me by a “picker” who shared photographs of the painting with me. I had never previously purchased any still life paintings to resell, but for some reason, I was attracted to this one and decided to acquire it. And I did not know the work of this artist* at the time, but he was a known 19th century American artist.

I made this purchase about 30 years ago in 1995 and it was a very intuitive and spontaneous decision for me. There was a certain quality of beauty about this painting and I was very drawn to it. The frame on the painting was also a very lovely and ornate turn of the century gold leaf frame, which enhanced the beauty of the artwork as well. The canvas was the original canvas and in perfect condition. I thought I would be able to sell it very quickly, even with a few days or weeks of receiving it.

When the painting arrived, I hung it in the rear of the gallery near my office, because it did not fit with the contemporary art that was always hanging in the main show space of my gallery. Over the next three years or so it hung there, and was visible to all who entered my gallery. Many people admired it and commented on its beauty and I had some good discussions with several clients who were drawn to it. Yet, no one reached the point where they wanted to purchase the painting. I was surprised and somewhat mystified that it did not sell quickly.

After trying to sell the painting for about three years, I decided to take it home. I hung it in my bedroom on the wall opposite my bed, which was the only spot I had available for an artwork of that size. The wall had the perfect space for it to have its own niche. I read quite a bit in those days and I could see it while lying in my bed with a book.

About six months after hanging it in my bedroom I was lying in bed reading one morning. After reading for a while, I casually laid the book down on my chest to think about what I had read in the last few pages and I was absentmindedly staring at the painting when suddenly…… The face of a meditating Buddha came into clear view in the upper left quadrant of the painting. I sat up in bed, shocked, and I remember saying out loud to myself “Oh my God !“. The image was facing straight forward and only one closed eye was visible, as well as the nose and some of the mouth and chin. The face was vivid and unmistakable. It was so clear and three-dimensional that I wondered why I had not seen it previously. But I realized that the face is very camouflaged, as it is composed of the light and dark colors and shading of the daffodils in the painting. As far as I am aware, the Buddha face in the painting has gone undiscovered for the last 130 years.

As I went about my day, I kept returning to the painting. Every time that I looked at it the Buddha face was the most prominent aspect of the painting. And every time I have looked at it since then, the meditating Buddha is the most prominent feature.

The timing of my discovery of the meditating Buddha face in the artwork is particularly interesting. I saw the Buddha in the painting about a week or so after I returned from an intuitive, self-directed weeklong immersion in nature by sitting on top of a sand dune on a somewhat small uninhabited island (Cumberland Island) off the coast of Georgia. I sat on top of a hundred foot dune overlooking the Atlantic Ocean for about six hours a day with a large towel covering me to shield me from the sun and with a bottle of water. It was so deeply relaxing for me that I felt a deep shift within myself that I still cannot put into words. And as I sat there looking out at the ocean, small flocks of wild turkeys would walk by 20 or 30 yards away, which is quite remarkable for wild turkeys as they are very alert and skittish birds. Deer and other animals would walk close by as well. I felt fairly invisible on my perch on that dune looking out at the beautiful blue horizon of the Atlantic Ocean.

It was about 10 days or so after I returned from my meditative vacation, when I was absentmindedly staring at the painting after reading in bed, and suddenly I very clearly saw the partial face of the meditating Buddha in the flowers. It astonished me then, and it still astonishes me now. The painting is a complete visual Sutra on stillness leading to Buddha nature arising, all in one image.

To view some larger images and also some clarifying images of the quadrant that contains the partial Buddha face go to www.buddhaintheflowers.com.