Category Archives: still life

Food and Drink in Still Life: A Taste of the Modern Era

We have previously explored the connotations of fruit in art and still life paintings; however the depiction of food does not end there; other foods such as meat, fish, poultry, and cheese are found in still life paintings alongside an … Continue reading

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The Connotations of Fruit in Art and Still Life Paintings

“With an apple I will astonish Paris.” Paul Cézanne, (1839-1906)   Artistic depictions of fruit date back 3000 years to Ancient Egypt. Still life paintings of food were found in the majority of ancient Egyptian tombs, as people genuinely believed … Continue reading

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Vanessa Garwood: abstraction, reality and imagination

 Vanessa Garwood, Self-portrait One of our up-&-coming young artists, Vanessa Garwood was trained at the Charles Cecil Studios in Florence. She studied painting and sculpture, and later served a three-month sculpture apprenticeship in South Africa. This awareness of form in … Continue reading

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The Low Countries’ Use of Flowers in Still Life Paintings

The English term still life is derivative of the Dutch word stilleven, and the style has many connections to the country. In 15th-century Early Netherlandish (Flemish primitive) paintings, the borders of artwork often featured elaborate displays of flowers, animals, insects and, in the instance of the famous … Continue reading

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A Classical Cast to Art

George Weissbort (1928-2013), Still life with a statuette and pink roses The impact of the classical past on the art of the Renaissance, as well as upon literature, politics, philosophy and rhetoric, was so cataclysmic as to echo down the … Continue reading

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The Compleat Angler

Catherine Wood, The Compleat Angler, exh. R.A 1910  Catherine Morris Wood was born in Islington in 1857, one of three sisters, to a London barrister and a Scottish mother.  In 1879 she won a scholarship to the Royal Female School … Continue reading

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Empty chambers, crowded with life

Belgian or French School, Sunlight on the table, 1909 Paintings of interior scenes go back in date as far as figure and still life subjects, as they were a necessary part of the background of each; but a whole furnished … Continue reading

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Why do we like naïve art?

Late 19th-early 20th century American School, Still life with fish, after William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) The Association of British Naïve Artists publishes quite a long introduction to the history of naïve art on its website, reiterating the qualities of innocence, … Continue reading

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The Mirror of Venus

 Stephen Rose, The mirror of Venus, 2012 This is one of the most colourful and decorative still life paintings within our collection – at once a still life which seems purely representational, and a work which veers towards abstraction. – at once … Continue reading

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The Artist’s Palate

Queen Nefetari makes an offering to Osiris, Tomb QV66, Valley of the Queens, Egypt, 1255 BC Food and art have been linked since very early times – perhaps for different reasons, as with the striking fresoes in the Tomb of … Continue reading

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