Still+Life



A still life is an arrangement of inanimate objects. There are three classes of still life Vanitas Xenia Natura Mortem Originally the still life was commissioned to show off a persons belongings. Gradually they became what we know them as, just paintings. Even so, they had the categories so that in their development stage they had a purpose. Besides it was a way for artists to speak. The Vanitas paintings //were warnings of being vane. Beware, beware// your striving for beauty think Witch from Snow White, will be you end. For those to vane to see the warning those painting were an artist exhibiting his techniques. Now, these paintings were mainly Dutch, Northern European, far away from ROme and the Church. Other categories like Natura Mortem were about hunting and showing off the catch or the game. They also became away to study animals and anatomy. Xenia was about good food. They encompassed how good a fermer one might employ or in fact be. Could these also contain warnings? Why not?



Cezanne Philippe Champaign A painting with a clear warning. What might it be? A flower, a skull, and an hour glass, mmmm? oil

Van Gogh

Van Gogh

Raphaelle Peale - Watermelon, Orange & Book and still life with Cake



 Cezanne above and below trying out different styles of painting.   This painting owes a lot to Matisse. It is interesting to see the same objects or clothe or backgrounds in an Artists work.

 A Cezanne study in color pencil.

 Cezanne, above and below. He did many watercolors experimenting with composition and color theory like complements and contrasts.

The following painting are by a contemporary of Picasso and Matisse and in Fact could have been as great but artists tend to march to their own drummer. Why he left Paris we can hint at. Georgio Morandi said he just could not take cubism and the running styles of the day so he was returning home. There was also World War two. Morandi was Italirn and his pride may have sent him back to Italy to side with his country and Mussolini. At any rate he started painting the same still life in different configurations for the rest of his career. He also painted landscapes and drew constantly but his landscapes are what earned him the title of a painters painter.



Morandi - doing a study of Positive Negative or composition. A study in watercolor Edges are important as they imply lines - above space and depth.

Composition

Edward Manet - oil Sub Category of still life known as natura morte Know mainly for his portraits, His still life paintings were beautiful whether dead fish, fruit or dead animals. Notice his use of black and how "up" in the foreground his focal point is. Notice the dark background.
 * [[image:mhsart1/Edouard_Manet_Still_Life_with_Fish_1864.jpg caption="Edouard_Manet_Still_Life_with_Fish_1864.jpg"]] Still Life with Fish ||

Xenia Edward Manet - oil - Look at the brush strokes, They are very loose and flowing. Objects are described in one or two strokes, color values make forms, this is the beginning of Impressionism. Manet did beautiful small Forals.



Below are examples of Natura Morta. These are paintings that deal with the success of the hunt. In another way they are works that honor the spirit of the animal killed for food.





Richard Diebenkorn - below Watercoloroil

Diebenkorn did his still lives as studies in technique and color. He drew constantly and the still life as well as interiors and life painting were apart of his daily routine. Most of these are small as in 12" x 12" or in that neightborhood.



David Bogart - below



These are small quickly done paintings. Wayne Theibaud - below   







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<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"> Adriaen Van Utrecht

Glennray



MuQi 6 Persimmons

Cornelius Norbetus-Gijsbrec Donald Sultan - below





Janet Fish















Ramaz-Razmadze -Fantasy Still Life