The History of Still Life Painting, A Whirlwind Tour

Still LifeA Whirlwind Tour

Douglas Fryer

A presentation by Christopher Volpe

Roman Wall Paintings, c. 40 AD

Jacopo de' Barbari

Still Life with Partridge and Gauntlet

1504

oil on wood, ~20”x16”

Considered the first ”modern” European still life since antiquity

Caravaggio - Bacchus, 1595-97, detail

The overflowing cornucopian basket in Caravaggio’s Bacchus contained

a signpost for future still life painting.

Caravaggio - Basket of Fruit 1599/1601

Caravaggio - Basket of Fruit - Decadence

Random still life by one of thousands of contemporary artists

Still-Life with Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber (c. 1600)by Juan Sanchez Cotan

An innovative compositional format — from 1600!

Related composition by Sean Beavers, one of many painters today who are “boxing” the still life

subject.

Still-Life with Quince Pears (c. 1887-1888) by Vincent Van Gogh

Typical 17th century Dutch still life. Everything here — the general abundance, the booze, the enameled silverware and fancy glass, the orange and the cooked crab (both at the time exotic fare available only to the wealthy) — is intended to signify the comforts of “having made it” and to imply the affluent social status of the patron who could afford to buy

and display such a painting in his home.

Vanitas Still Life, 1603Jacques de Gheyn II (Netherlandish, 1565–1629)Oil on woodn Sanchez Cotan

Still Life with Lobster and Fruit, 1650sAbraham van Beyeren (Dutch, 1620/21–1690)Oil on wood; 38 x 31 in. (96.5 x 78.7 cm)

V a n i t a s

Vanitas still life paintings like this one were a favorite among the Dutch, who read such symbols of mortality as “memento mori” — reminders that life is fleeting and that one should look to the condition of one’s soul through faith

in God.

Chardin - 1699-1779Chardin dispensed with the heavy symbolism of still life, creating a lyrical visual world in which ordinary, even humble objects become worthy of

attention for their beauty alone.

Chardin - Pheasant and hunting Bag

It’s perhaps no coincidence that this still life of Chardin’s harkens back to the early example in

slide #1.

Chardin

Chardin’s compositions set a tone for traditional still life painting that is still practiced today.

Chardin - Silver Cup -

Cardin -

Chardin - The Attributes of Music

Here Chardin drawn upon the Dutch masters but his composition is original and the symbolism (except perhaps for the one unlit candle) is entirely allegorical and without

moral dimension.

Chardin - The RayIn this genius-level painting, Chardin included a partially flayed skate and a very alive

hissing, predatory cat, moving still life beyond the merely beautiful to suggest the strangeness and brutality of nature.

Goya - Still Life with Golden Bream

In his few still life paintings, Goya in the 1700s stripped the genre of its artifice and stressed the raw facts of visual truth and death without

symbolism or lyrical beauty.

In his few still life paintings, Goya in the 1700s stripped the genre of its artifice and stressed the raw facts of visual truth and death without

symbolism or lyrical beauty.

Corot - Flowers in a glass beside a tobacco pot

Camille Corot in the early to mid 1800s approached still life with an honesty and directness that stressed "objective” naturalism and the observational aspect of

the painter’s task.

Manet’s Flowers

(Painted as he lay dying in hospital, a

perfection of purely

observational painting)

Manet

Here realism begins to yield to Impressionism and painterly editorialism.

Just an interesting realist observational still life by Monet.

Still-Life with Quince Pears (c. 1887-1888) by Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh

Paintings of real life that look like no one else’s

(because van Gogh felt and saw and had the courage to

paint the life of ordinary humanity).

Vincent van GoghStill Life with Shoes 18861886Oil on canvas37.5 x 45.5 cmVan Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

RenoirImpressionism - the lyric mode.

Cezanne

(perceptual)

Cezanne (something else again!)

Cezanne

(perceptual)

Matisse - In Dialogue w/ Cezanne

Matisse, in dialogue with Cezanne, 1909

Matisse(making it his own, 1910 - ‘30+)

Picasso in dialogue with Cezanne(and the whole history of still life painting)

Still life by Pablo Picasso

Pierre Bonnard - it’s all about the color

Modernism – Still Life with Watermelon, Umberto Boccioni, 1914

Diebenkorn, 1970s (in dialogue with Matisse)

Chaim Soutine

Russian (1893-1943)

Death in Life

We’ll return to this motif - dead things and forks -at

the end of the presentation

Soutine - forceful, unforgettable painting

Rembrandt, "The Slaughtered Ox," 1655

Alex Kanevsky, 2013

In dialogue with Rembrandt

Giorgio Morandi

Morandi — modern yet timeless

Morandi

Stuart Shils(in dialogue with Morandi)

Return to Realism

JASON DE GRAAF

An aside: this portrait was done

using only a pencil.

The question is… why?

(Given time, anyone could copy a sexist magazine

phototo prove how

awesome they are. Technique is JUST

technique. Painters aren’t obligated to reproduce objects

realistically.)

Emil Carlsen - early 20th c. - An example of what I’d call “poetic” still life painting

Emil Carlsen - early 20th c.

Emil Carlsen -

David LeffelRiffing on Carlsen’s still life style.

Adding anything new?

John Singer Sargent

Raimonds Staprans (1960s - Matisse, de Stahl…)

Helene Scherfbeck

George Nick

Penumbrian Bowl- Israel Hershberg

David park

Wayne Thibaud

Richard Diebenkorn

1970s “post abstraction”

Euan Uglow

Robert Kulicke Catherine Kehoe

Catherine Kehoe

KehoeUglow

Stanley Bielen

(remember Manet?)

Stanley Bielen

Zoey Frank

Ron Krouk

Loose- Carol Marine, Lisa Noonis

Carol Marine(a “daily painter”)

Doug Freyer(a landscape painter)

Jon Redmond

“Postcard from Provence”(Like closeups from a Chardin)

Daily Painter:

Same guy.

Tony Scherman(random

contemporary)

Contemp realism - Jeremy Mann (a la Chardin)

Contemp realism - Catherine Murphy - Bathroom Sink 1994

Quang Ho

Nathan Ford

chelsea james(notable for treatment of themes of feminism and contemporary domesticity)

chelsea james

The object deconstructed

WalterMurch


WalterMurch

Cylinder & Pigeon, 1961-62

1504 / 1962


Walter Murch


Oliver Rouault

Roger Chavez

Roger Chavez

Tonal Still Life

Two Blue BowlsChristopher Volpe

Diebenkorn again - paint handling!

Christopher Volpe

Still Life with Crafting Table

Christine Lafuente

Jan MankesDutch, 1889-1920

Jan MankesDutch, 1889-1920

"I paint or rather wish to paint paintings, silent but singing, singing indeed by their silence.” October 20 1911

Random contemporary seen in a hotel, ripping off Mankes.

Again, today there are literally thousands of “me too” painters making technically impressive yet unimaginative (and in large part nearly identical) still life paintings. This

requires little more than a few online tutorials and lot of patience. But there are exceptions, as we’ve also seen. Sadie Jernigan Valeri is someone whose still life paintings are traditional,

yet imaginative and lyrical. Note the self-portrait in the silver jug.

This is 20th century Spanish master Antonia Lopez Garcia’s still life “Remains of a Meal.” This nearly white-on-white painting elevates the still life genre out of the merely “cool to look at” or “decorative,” as

it’s called. It does what great art does - it brings the viewer right up against his or her basic humanity. Although the painting is exquisitely composed, the way it seemingly casually crops some objects and centers on others, it ends up documenting one of the most basic facts of human life – namely, that

despite all our civilizing (denoted by table cloth, neatly placed utensil, water glass) we are “only” human, and as liable as any other animal to leave a mess of bones and torn animal flesh after “feeding.”

The Lopez Garcia painting is here being quoted by contemporary post-modern painter Alex Kanevsky, a professor of painting at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts.

Kanevsky keeps the white-on-white starkness of the earlier work, and he ups the ante by replacing the “remains of a meal” with what looks like the shred of some animal’s

(human?) internal organ (it’s further unsettling that we don’t know exactly what that bloody-fleshy thing is, but whatever it might be, we know it’s not something anybody

should be eating).

Finally, the Lopez Garcia is effectively quoted again in this etching by young Spanish painter Alejandro Marco Montalvo. Here, replacing the fork with a paintbrush and the food with a bone, the artist gives this image an entirely new meaning, harkening back in a casual way to the 17th

century Dutch tradition of “vanitas” still lifes we saw earlier, in which the painter includes symbolism intended to act as reminders of human mortality.

It’s what you say, not just what you can do, that counts.

The History of Still Life Painting, A Whirlwind Tour

Art & Photos

Transcript of The History of Still Life Painting, A Whirlwind Tour