Stylish still life. Unexpected still lifes

Most consider still life paintings to be beautiful but boring. Even the very name of the genre - from the French nature morte - "dead nature", seems to prove that there is little interesting here. However, among the still lifes there are pictures of unusual and exciting. True, their unusualness is far from always visible at first sight: sometimes you need to take a closer look, and sometimes find out the history of the creation of the picture. About the most interesting still lifes with food - in our article.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, "Portrait of Emperor Rudolph II as Vertumn", 1590

Despite the name of the painting, art historians define its genre as “portrait still life”. And here it’s hard to disagree with them: after all, it’s impossible to call it an ordinary portrait. The painting belongs to the brush of the 16th century Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who in the 20th century was proclaimed the forerunner of surrealism. In his paintings, Arcimboldo depicted human faces in the form of compositions of vegetables and fruits, crustaceans and fish, often even with a portrait resemblance. It is known that Emperor Rudolph II was delighted with his "edible" portrait and very generously rewarded the artist. Among the portrait still lifes, Arcimboldo also has quite unusual ones - “shifters”: it is enough to turn the picture 180 degrees to see a completely new image. So, the portrait "Gardener" when rotated becomes a still life "Vegetables in a bowl", and the portrait "Cook" turns into a still life with piglets on a platter.

It was in the work of the Dutch and Flemish artists of the 17th century that the still life finally established itself as an independent genre of painting. Still lifes by Frans Snyders are made in the Baroque style - they are dynamic, abundant, colorful. A blue-black peacock hanging from the table, a luxurious red lobster on a blue dish, motley small game on the table, yellow and green and melons ... Despite the "dead nature", the picture is full of life and seems to be permeated with movement. And the dog and cat quarreling under the table only harmoniously complete the already lively kitchen scene.

The French artist Paul Serusier spoke about Cezanne's fruit like this: “They will say about the apple of an ordinary artist:“ You want to eat it. About Cezanne's apple: "How beautiful it is." You will not dare to peel his apple, you will want to copy it. Indeed, Cezanne had a “special relationship” with apples: he considered them perfect creations both in shape and in color. It is known that Cezanne even said: "I will conquer Paris with my apples." On the simplest examples, he sought to show the true beauty of nature. One of the young artists visited Cezanne while he was working on one of the still lifes and was amazed: “Cezanne began to lay out the fruits, picking them up so that they contrasted with each other, and watching for the appearance of additional colors: green on red and yellow on blue . He moved and turned the fruits endlessly, placing coins of one and two sous under them. All this Cezanne did slowly and carefully, and it was clear that this activity gives him real pleasure.

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin "Morning still life", 1918

At first glance, the painting “Morning Still Life” is simple and uncomplicated, but if you look closely, you can notice interesting details, for example, a ginger cat reflected in the teapot - perhaps it lies on the owner’s lap. In addition to the cat, the dog “gives out” the person in the picture - she looks straight at him in patient expectation. So in a still life, the presence of a person is visibly felt, although the artist did not draw him. There are few objects in the picture, but most of them are endowed with brilliance: a nickel-plated teapot is polished to a shine, a glass jar with a bouquet of wild flowers glistens in the sun, and egg shells glisten. There are light reflections on the countertop, saucer, glass of tea, refracted silver spoon. The painting "Morning Still Life" is full of bright light, it conveys a feeling of morning freshness and peace.

Among the still lifes of the Spanish surrealist artist, there are quite a few quite “ordinary” ones - “Still Life” of 1918, still lifes “Fish” of 1922 and “Basket of Bread” of 1925, “Still Life with Two" of 1926, etc. However, the most famous of Dali's still lifes is "Live Still Life" ("Moving Still Life"), written during his passion for physics (mainly nuclear and quantum). Dali himself called this period - from 1949 to 1962 - "nuclear mysticism." At this time, Dali did away with "static" in the paintings and began to represent matter in the form of particles. Even in still life, objects have lost their absolute immobility and have acquired a crazy movement that does not correspond to our ideas about reality.

David Shterenberg "Herrings", 1917

David Shterenberg is often referred to as a "still life painter". His paintings are characterized by expressiveness of images, planar construction of space, clarity and generalization of the picture. Most often, the artist's attention is attracted to simple things, for example, the meager products of rations - black bread and herring. The artist pays attention to details and texture - in "Herrings" a wooden tabletop, a piece of bread, and shiny fish scales are clearly defined. The picture is symbolic and expressive, it tells about the dramatic post-revolutionary years better than any words. No less interesting are Shterenberg's other minimalistic still lifes - "Still Life with Sweets", "Curdled Milk", "Cake" (see below in the gallery).

Frans Snyders "Still life with bat game and lobster", first half of the 17th century
It was in the work of the Dutch and Flemish artists of the 17th century that the still life finally established itself as an independent genre of painting. Still lifes by Frans Snyders are made in the Baroque style - they are dynamic, abundant, colorful. A blue-black peacock hanging from the table, a luxurious red lobster on a blue dish, colorful small game on the table, yellow and green artichokes and melons ... Despite the "dead nature", the picture is full of life and seems to be pierced with movement. And the dog and cat quarreling under the table only harmoniously complete the already lively kitchen scene.

Most consider still life paintings to be beautiful but boring. Even the very name of the genre - from the French nature morte - "dead nature", seems to prove that there is little interesting here. However, among the still lifes there are pictures of unusual and exciting. True, their unusualness is far from always visible at first sight: sometimes you need to take a closer look, and sometimes find out the history of the creation of the picture. About the most interesting still lifes with food - in our article.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, "Portrait of Emperor Rudolph II as Vertumn", 1590

Despite the name of the painting, art historians define its genre as “portrait still life”. And here it’s hard to disagree with them: after all, it’s impossible to call it an ordinary portrait. The painting belongs to the brush of the 16th century Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who in the 20th century was proclaimed the forerunner of surrealism. In his paintings, Arcimboldo depicted human faces in the form of compositions of vegetables and fruits, crustaceans and fish, often even with a portrait resemblance. It is known that Emperor Rudolph II was delighted with his "edible" portrait and very generously rewarded the artist. Among the portrait still lifes, Arcimboldo also has quite unusual ones - “shifters”: it is enough to turn the picture 180 degrees to see a completely new image. So, the portrait "Gardener" when rotated becomes a still life "Vegetables in a bowl", and the portrait "Cook" turns into a still life with piglets on a platter.

Paul Cezanne, Still Life with Apples and Oranges, circa 1900

The French artist Paul Serusier spoke about Cezanne's fruit like this: “They will say about the apple of an ordinary artist:“ You want to eat it. About Cezanne's apple: "How beautiful it is." You will not dare to peel his apple, you will want to copy it. Indeed, Cezanne had a “special relationship” with apples: he considered them perfect creations both in shape and in color. It is known that Cezanne even said: "I will conquer Paris with my apples." On the simplest examples, he sought to show the true beauty of nature. One of the young artists visited Cezanne while he was working on one of the still lifes and was amazed: “Cezanne began to lay out the fruits, picking them up so that they contrasted with each other, and watching for the appearance of additional colors: green on red and yellow on blue . He moved and turned the fruits endlessly, placing coins of one and two sous under them. All this Cezanne did slowly and carefully, and it was clear that this activity gives him real pleasure.

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin "Morning still life", 1918

At first glance, the painting “Morning Still Life” is simple and uncomplicated, but if you look closely, you can notice interesting details, for example, a ginger cat reflected in the teapot - perhaps it lies on the owner’s lap. In addition to the cat, the dog “gives out” the person in the picture - she looks straight at him in patient expectation. So in a still life, the presence of a person is visibly felt, although the artist did not draw him. There are few objects in the picture, but most of them are endowed with brilliance: a nickel-plated teapot is polished to a shine, a glass jar with a bouquet of wild flowers glistens in the sun, and egg shells glisten. There are light reflections on the countertop, saucer, glass of tea, refracted silver spoon. The painting "Morning Still Life" is full of bright light, it conveys a feeling of morning freshness and peace.

Salvador Dali "Living Still Life", 1956

Among the still lifes of the Spanish surrealist artist there are quite a few quite “ordinary” ones - “Still Life” of 1918, still lifes “Fish” of 1922 and “Basket of Bread” of 1925, “Still Life with Two Lemons” of 1926, etc. However, the most famous of the still lifes Dali is "Live Still Life" ("Moving Still Life"), written during his passion for physics (mainly nuclear and quantum). Dali himself called this period - from 1949 to 1962 - "nuclear mysticism." At this time, Dali did away with "static" in the paintings and began to represent matter in the form of particles. Even in still life, objects have lost their absolute immobility and have acquired a crazy movement that does not correspond to our ideas about reality.

David Shterenberg "Herrings", 1917

David Shterenberg is often referred to as a "still life painter". His paintings are characterized by expressiveness of images, planar construction of space, clarity and generalization of the picture. Most often, the artist's attention is attracted to simple things, for example, the meager products of rations - black bread and herring. The artist pays attention to details and texture - in "Herrings" a wooden tabletop, a piece of bread, and shiny fish scales are clearly defined. The picture is symbolic and expressive, it tells about the dramatic post-revolutionary years better than any words.