Still Life of Flowers and Fruit
Jean-Michel Picart, Still Life of Flowers and Fruit, 1640, oil on panel, Museum Purchase: Funds provided by the Reserve Fund and the Marybeth Brananman and Georgia Stoetzel Branaman Bequest, public domain, 2002.7
This work is not currently on view.
- Title
Still Life of Flowers and Fruit
- Artist
- Date
1640
- Period
High Baroque (ca. 1625-late 17th century)
- Medium
oil on panel
- Dimensions (H x W x D)
21 1/4 in x 26 3/4 in
- Collection Area
European Art
- Category
Paintings
- Object Type
painting
- Culture
French
- Credit Line
Museum Purchase: Funds provided by the Reserve Fund and the Marybeth Brananman and Georgia Stoetzel Branaman Bequest
- Accession Number
2002.7
- Copyright
public domain
- Terms
By 1638, Picart was one of the most prominent figures among the community of still life painters from Flanders and Holland who settled in Paris in the early 17th century. An art dealer as well as a painter, he headed a workshop where young artists from the Netherlands got their first jobs in Paris.
Over his long career, Picart's art evolved from the simplicity of Flemish realism to the extravagance of richly draped floral arrangements painted for Louis XIV. This painting of a tall bouquet of flowers, exquisitely rendered against glossy darkness, is typical of Antwerp mastery. In the glass bowl of flowers set on a chip-wood box, a humble food storage item depicted only in France, we see the artist creating the subtly different harmonics that would come to mark French still-life painting.
- Exhibitions
2003 The Triumph of French Painting: 17th Century Masterpieces from the Museums of FRAME Portland Art Museum; Birmingham Museum of Art; Meadows Museum
