Signed Still Life, Oil on Canvas. Three peaches. Signed L.M. Flower bottom right. 

Overall: 26 3/4 x 20 5/8 in. 

Sight: 13 1/4 x 19 5/8 in. 

#7544 . 

A still life painting, drawing, or photograph depicts inanimate, everyday objects. Some of the earliest examples were made in the 15th Century BC by the Ancient Egyptians, discovered in burial sites as funerary paintings depicting meat, fish and grains which would be carried over into the afterlife or made as offerings to the Gods. In Ancient Greece and Rome similar subjects appeared in frescoes and as patterned mosaics, referred to as “emblema.” As the still life genre developed over the centuries it became closely intertwined with religious symbolism, where inanimate objects were often illustrated alongside sacred texts and manuscripts. It is believed that Italian Early Renaissance painter Jacopo de Barbari made the first modern still life panel painting in 1504, but it was not until the 17th Century in Northern Europe that the genre fully came into its own. The term “still life” was derived from the Dutch word “stilleven,” with Dutch and Flemish painters depicting various subjects including dead game, meat, bread and blooming vases of flowers. In France, flower painting was a popular subject in the 18th Century, exemplified in the paintings of Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin. In Spain, still life subject matter also emerged during the Renaissance period, with artists elevating what was once seen as a humble, inferior subject to the same ranks as Biblical or narrative painting through vivid color, minute attention to detail, and dramatic lighting. The appearance of photography in the early 19th Century led to a new art form, as real-life objects could be captured with the same clarity as a painter, and contributed to revolutionary thinking and the birth of Realism in the art world. Throughout the 20th Century artists continued to explore still life subjects in a range of styles, as Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters sought ways to add weight and substance to ordinary items as a means of celebrating simplicity and honesty over pomp and ceremony. Abstraction and Surrealism in the works of artists like Picasso and Dali led to further experimentation by Pop artists like Andy Warhol, and today the still life is one of the most common forms of art, often as an early attempt to hone an artist’s craft through a subject that will not move, cancel a sitting, or complain how they look.