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#stilllife — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #stilllife, aggregated by home.social.

  1. I used to look at still life painting and think it was a bit odd. I didn't really get the point.

    I understand now that in part anyway its about training your eye on the subtle interactions of color, light, form, edges...the fundamentals!

    Can you do that on other things? Sure, but its not a bad way to paint a lot of things fast and as I wish I could tell myself a long time ago, painting more things matters a lot more than taking a lot of time to paint fewer things.

    #art #painting #stilllife

  2. "Roses, Orange Blossom, and Other Flowers in a Blue Vase," Anna Vallayer-Coster, c. 1800.

    Vallayer-Coster (1744-1818) was a French painter best known for her still lifes, which was not a popular genre of painting at the time...but she was, and is, noted as a very skilled artist in that school.

    She achieved fame and recognition early on, at the age of 26, and her works (including portraits, florals, and scenes of everyday life as well as still lifes) were in demand by the aristocracy.

    Her career was hurt by the French Revolution. A very private and hardworking woman, she was spared the anger and bloodshed, but the market for her work dried up. Reportedly she worked in a tapestry factory for a while, just to make a living, and was still painting up until a few years before her passing at 73.

    Today, while not regarded as a genius,, she is admired for her ability to treat just about anything with a certain grandeur, and to make everything seem solid and permanent, even flowers.

    Happy Flower Friday!

    From a private collection.

    #Art #AnnaVallayerCoster #FlowerFriday #WomenArtists #StillLIfe #Neoclassicism

  3. Waiting with Paul
    Being in Greece during corona, I needed an extra check. This was the waiting corner where I, for some reason, under the careful watch of Paul, had to wait.

    #silentSunday #blackandwhite #bw #photo #photography #stilllife #paulnewman

  4. "Lemon," Édouard Manet, 1880.

    Manet (1832-83) was a pivotal figure in Western art; he was the first real Modernist painter, in that he specialized in depictions of contemporary life. He was also an important figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.

    Some of his works generated scandal and controversy, like the famous "Dejeuner sur l'Herbe" (a picnic scene with nude women), and "Olympia," in which a nude courtesan matter-of-factly confronts the viewer. Here, though, we have a subdued picture of something simple: a lemon.

    In 1880 his health was in decline, due to late-stage syphilis, and he began focusing on small-scale still lifes. Rather than arranging many objects, he'd focus on one, or a grouping of one type of thing. Manet is reported as saying that "an artist can say all he has to say with flowers, fruit, and clouds" and this seems to click with that view. This is a good reminder that in something mundane and everyday, like a lemon, art can be found.

    He completed one last major painting, the famous "Bar at the Folies Bergeres" in 1882, and up to his death the following year, painted small pictures of flowers in crystal vases.

    From the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

    #Art #Realism #EdouardManet #StillLife #Lemon

  5. "Fish (Still Life)," Edouard Manet, 1864.

    Y'all know Manet. He loved doing still lifes, and seems to have patterned this on works from the Dutch Golden Age. While carefully depicting the preparations for a fish dinner, he's very much confronting the viewer, which people of the time found unorthodox and avant-garde. (Strange to think of this as avant-garde!)

    The fish is a mullet; next to it is a red gurnet, a small eel, and a pile of oysters; there's a lemon and a big brass pot, which seems to indicate that they're going to be poached or braised for dinner. Looks good to me...

    From the Art Institute of Chicago.

    #Art #EdouardManet #Realism #StillLife #FIsh #Dinner

  6. "Still Life of Flowers in a Basket on a Stone Ledge," Jan Brueghel the Younger, 17th century.

    Brueghel (1601-1678) was from a great artistic family; his father was Jan Brueghel the Elder (of course), and his grandfather was Pieter Brueghel the Elder, both exceptional Flemish painters of the Renaissance. Jan the Younger was of the Baroque period, having taken over his father's workshop at a young age, and developing his own style.

    He didn't do as many still lifes and florals as his father, but here's one of his most delightful. A lovely jumble of flowers is presented to us in a basket, with tulips, roses, cornflowers, lily-of-the-valley, and other, but Brueghel makes it balanced and harmonious amid all the jumble, rather than a cacophony.

    Happy Flower Friday!

    From a private collection.

    #Art #FlemishArt #BaroqueArt #JanBrueghelTheYounger #FlowerFriday #StillLife