Nikolai Kull began displaying still lifes even as a student in Pallas, but this painting was made a year before he began his studies there. At the time, Kull was not a widely recognised artist yet and did not participate actively in exhibitions.
The work is reminiscent of Ants Laikmaa’s oeuvre: mastery of the pastel technique enabled the artist to emphasise muffled yet effective colour contrasts, with a special focus on white chrysanthemums, which were Laikmaa’s favourite flowers.
Kull’s free, somewhat vibrating manner of depiction differs from his Old Town views, in which the composition is cruder, colours darker and scratched. Chrysanthemums, on the other hand, exudes hedonism, makes use of the solubility and softness of pastels, and displays laconic beauty instead of trying to achieve an exaggerated effect. The still-life also manifests the bourgeois mindset of the 1920s: Kull did not depict wild flowers in a meadow, but a bouquet placed in a tasteful vase, possibly adorning some urban abode.