Still Life as Document and Symbol
STILL LIFE WITH A TURKEY PIE
Pieter Claesz (ca. 1597-1661)
1627
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
As though to prove the importance of wine and the vine in art, many artists have given these elements pride of place in still life compositions, whether symbolic or decorative. This dates back to Antiquity, as shown by the vine and grape motifs in mosaics and frescoes unearthed in the Vesuvius region of Italy. Still life began to emerge as a definable genre at the end of the sixteenth century. It would explode in popularity during the seventeenth century.
“Still life was to occupy the majority of the artistic space and the profusion of added elements adopted different aspects, evoking the opulence of well-stocked tables overflowing with food, crockery, people and animals… from a point of view which was both documentary and symbolic” (Source: Musée du Louvre).
Certain 17th-century works bear witness to contemporary dietary habits and beliefs: the lemon, ubiquitous in certain Dutch still life paintings, was believed to counteract poisons hidden in gold and silver tableware. Wine was thought to aid the digestion of melons, peaches and other fruit; while oysters were said to “awaken the appetite, the desire to eat and to share one’s bed, and [to be] as beneficial to those of a joyful character as those of more delicate disposition...” (Johan van Beverwyck, 1651). On a less prosaic level, the lemon symbolises the bitterness of existence and, when peeled, evokes the passage of time (the oysters, which can’t be conserved, convey much the same message).
STILL LIFE WITH CHEESE
Floris Claesz van Dijck , ca.1615 - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands STILL LIFE WITH A WINE COOLER
Frans Snyders, ca. 1610/20 - Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid, Spain STILL LIFE
Osias Beerl, 1617 - Palace of Versailles, France / 3 STILL LIFE
Clara Peeters, 1627/29 - Private collection STILL LIFE WITH GRAPES, APPLES AND A JUG
Georg Flegel (attrib.), 17th Cent. beginning - Private collection STILL LIFE
Georg Flegel, 1635 - Private collection SERVING TABLE
Juan van der Hamen, 1631 - Private collection STILL LIFE WITH A GLASS AND OYSTERS
Jan Davidsz de Heem, ca. 1640 - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York STILL LIFE WITH OYSTERS, A SILVER TAZZA, AND GLASSWARE
W-C. Heda, 1635 - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York STILL LIFE WITH OLIVES W-C. Heda
1634 - Mus. voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent, Belgium, The Netherlands STILL LIFE
W-C. Heda, 1651 - Private collection STILL LIFE WITH DRINKING-HORN
Willem Kalf, 1653 - National Gallery, London STILL LIFE WITH WAFER BISCUITS (LE DESSERT DE GAUFRETTES)
Lubin Baugin, ca. 1631 - Musée du Louvre, Paris STILL LIFE WITH CHESS BOARD or THE FIVE SENSES (NATURE MORTE A L’ÉCHIQUIER ou LES CINQ SENS) L. Baugin, 1630 - Mus. du Louvre, Paris THE DEAD WOLF (LE LOUP MORT)
Jean Baptiste Oudry, 1721 - Wallace Collection, London SILL LIFE WITH JAR OF OLIVES (NATURE MORTE AU BOCAL D'OLIVES)
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, 1760 - Musée du Louvre / 16 GRAPES AND POMEGRANATES (RAISINS ET GRENADES)
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, 1763 - Musée du Louvre PEARS, WALNUTS AND GLASS OF WINE (POIRES , NOIX ET VERRE DE VIN)
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, 1768 - Musée du Louvre > Click on the icons for a closer look at the artworks
3. Typical of the still life in fashion in the Netherlands and the Rhineland at that time. Only the piece of pie, the knife and the strawberry placed on the table give an inkling of a sense of life.
13. Diderot published reviews of the Salons from 1759 to 1781. He described Chardin as an illusionist who could make people believe that “a porcelain vase is made of porcelain”. He recognised “Nature herself” in Chardin’s paintings, and objects “real enough to fool one’s eyes” (Claude Frontisi, Histoire visuelle de l’art, Larousse, 2005).
STILL LIFE WITH BOTTLE, CARAFE, BREAD, AND WINE
Claude Monet, 1862/63 - National Gallery of Art, Washington STILL LIFE WITH MELON AND PEACHES
Edouard Manet, ca. 1866 - National Gallery of Art, Washington STILL LIFE WITH APPLES AND PITCHER
Camille Pissaro, 1872 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York STILL LIFE
Camille Pissarro, 1867 - Museum of Art, Toledo, United States / 4 STILL LIFE WITH HAM
Philippe Rousseau, 1870s - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York STILL LIFE WITH OYSTERS
James Ensor, 1882 - Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium STILL LIFE WITH BOTTLES AND EARTHENWARE Vincent Van Gogh
Nov. 1884 | Apr. 1885 - Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands THE DRESSER
Paul Cézanne, 1877 - Fine Arts Museum, Budapest, Hungary STILL LIFE WITH OINIONS
Paul Cezanne, 1896/98 - Musée d'Orsay, Paris > Click on the icons for a closer look at the artworks
4. 'Don’t bother trying to look for something new: you won’t find novelty in the subject matter, but in the way you express it', Pissaro.
STILL LIFE WITH WINE BOTTLE AND GLASS
Edward Hopper, 1899 - Private collection THE BLACK BOTTLE
Samuel John Peploe, ca. 1905 - National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh STILL LIFE WITH BOTTLE
Umberto Boccioni, 1912 - Pompidou Center, Paris BOTTLE AND FISHES
Georges Braque, ca. 1910/12 - Tate, London / 4 STILL LIVE WITH GLASS, WINE BOTTLE, PACKAGE OF TOBACCO, AND NEWSPAPER Pablo Picasso, 1914 - Musée Picasso, Paris KNIFE AND FRUIT IN FRONT OF THE WINDOW
Diego Rivera, 1917 - Museo Dolores Olmedo, Mexico, Mexixo STILL LIFE WITH THE BOTTLE OF WINE (NATURE MORTE A LA BOUTEILLE DE VIN) Kisling, 1918 - Teien Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan BOTTLES AND KNIVES (BOUTEILLES ET COUTEAUX)
Juan Gris, 1911 - Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands JAR AND GLASS
Juan Gris, 1916 - Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain BOTTLE, GLASS, AND NEWSPAPER
Juan Gris, 1918 - Private collection? STILL LIFE WITH THE BOTTLE OF BORDEAUX (NATURE MORTE À LA BOUTEILLE DE BORDEAUX) J. Gris, 1919 - Sammlung T. et A. Werner Coll., Berlin, Germany BOTTLE, WINE GLASS, AND FRUIT BOWL
Juan Gris, 1921 - Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland BOTTLE OF ORANGE WINE (LA BOUTEILLE DE VIN ORANGE)
Le Corbusier, 1922 - Le Corbusier Foundation, Paris A BOTTLE AND FRUIT (UNE BOUTEILLE ET DES FRUITS)
Juan Gris, 1923 - Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA, United States STILL LIFE WITH GLASS OF RED WINE (NATURE MORTE AU VERRE DE VIN ROUGE) Amédée Ozenfant, 1921 - Kunstmuseum, Basel, Suisse THE BOTTLE OF WINE
Pablo Picasso, 1926 - Beyeler Fundation, Riehen, Basel-Stadt, Switzerland THE BOTTLE OF WINE
Joan Miró, 1924 - The Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain STILL LIFE WITH GLASS OF WINE (NATURE MORTE AU VERRE DE VIN)
Emile Othon Friesz, 1929 - Pompidou Centre, Paris STILL LIFE WITH A FIGURE
Balthus, 1940 - Tate, London STILL LIFE WITH BOTTLE OF RED WINE (NATURE MORTE A LA BOUTEILLE DE VIN ROUGE) Pierre Bonnard, 1942 - Private collection STILL LIFE
Georgio Morandi, 1951 - Museo Morandi, Bologna, Italy BREAD AND WINE (PAIN ET VIN)
Claude Yvel, 1964 STILL LIFE WITH RED WINE
Roy Lichtenstein, 1970s? GLASS OF WINE (COPA)
Tàpies, 1997 - Vivanco, Briones, La Rioja, Spain > Click on the icons to explore the artworks in depth
In the 19th century, still life paintings were considered essentially documentary. In the 20th century, artworks of this type – whether futurist, cubist, surrealist or hyper-realist – were seen more an extension of the artist’s personality, an expression of style and individual talent.
4. A traditional domestic subject matter again, with a bottle and fishes on a plate, laid on a table with a drawer: ordinary objects, but fragmented to form a grid-like structure.
THE VIRTUAL WINE MUSEUM'S COLLECTIONS
Fr. Drinking to Savoir-boire
From Vineyard to Port
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