Ellen Baker

Winter Squash by Ellen Baker

Provenance: Selma Herringman, New York, ca. 1955-2013; thence by descent to: Private Collection, New York, 2013-2020 This seventeenth century Spanish still-life of a laden table, known as a bodegón, stands out for its dramatic lighting and for the detailed description of each object. The artist’s confident use of chiaroscuro enables the sliced-open squash in the left foreground to appear as if emerging out of the darkness and projecting towards the viewer. The light source emanates from the upper left, illuminating the array, and its strength is made apparent by the reflections on the pitcher, pot, and the fruit in the basket. Visible brush strokes accentuate the vegetables’ rough surfaces and delicate interiors. Although the painter of this striking work remains unknown, it is a characteristic example of the pioneering Spanish still-lifes of the baroque period, which brought inanimate objects alive on canvas. In our painting, the knife and the large yellow squash boldly protrude off the table. Balancing objects on the edge of a table was a clever way for still-life painters to emphasize the three-dimensionality of the objects depicted, as well a way to lend a sense of drama to an otherwise static image. The knife here teeters on the edge, appearing as if it might fall off the table and out of the painting at any moment. The shape and consistency of the squash at left is brilliantly conveyed through the light brush strokes that define the vegetable’s fleshy and feathery interior. The smaller gourds—gathered together in a pile—are shrouded partly in darkness and stand out for their rugged, bumpy exterior. The stoneware has a brassy glaze, and the earthy tones of the vessels are carefully modulated by their interaction with the light and shadow that falls across them. The artist has cleverly arranged the still-life in a V-shaped composition, with a triangular slice of cheese standing upright, serving as its pinnacle. Independent still-lifes only became an important pictorial genre in the first years of the seventeenth century. In Italy, and particularly through the revolutionary works of Caravaggio, painted objects became carriers of meaning, and their depiction and arrangement the province of serious artistic scrutiny. Caravaggio famously asserted that it was equally difficult to paint a still-life as it was to paint figures, and the elevation of this new art form would have profound consequences to the present day. In Spain Juan Sanchez Cotan...

Zygmund Jankowski (1925–2009) painted traditional subjects with exuberant irreverence for traditional rules of color, composition, and perspective. He disparaged imitation and deligh...

Zygmund Jankowski (1925–2009) painted traditional subjects with exuberant irreverence for traditional rules of color, composition, and perspective. He disparaged imitation and deligh...

Oil paint on canvas Hand-signed by the artist

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Stuart Bigley is an artist based in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley. He has been making and showing his artwork for over 40 years. During this time he also co-founded and ran th...

Roger Marcel Limouse, (Algerian/French 1894 - 1989) Still Life, October 1939, Oil on canvas. Signed upper right and marked Oct 39 on back. Greens, Blues, and Yellow/Browns prevail in this still life of a table with fruits, cake, and a candle. Nude is painted verso on stretched canvas under frame. Frame 24.5 x 28.875 x 1.625, Canvas 21.875 x 23.875 A student of Paul Albert Laurens (1870-1934) at the Académie Julian, his figurative work, very colorful, with powerful and stripped down forms, made him one of the last representatives of Fauvism and the eldest of the group of Painters of Poetic Reality. He belongs to the School of Paris. In 1943, Jacques de Laprade dedicated a book to Roger Limouse in the collection "The Masters of Tomorrow" directed by Francis Carco. He writes, "One of the characteristics of this personality is strength. There is nothing in Limouse that lacks relief. This small and extremely vigorous man seduces by his direct and dru language, by his deep conviction, by the picturesque of his stories, by his very life which testifies to his energy. In 1948, Roger Limouse was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (Professor at the School of Fine Arts). He held this position until 1964. In 1949, the journalist Gisèle d'Assailly (1904-1969) devoted a book "With the Painters of Poetic Reality" to eight friendly painters, supporters of a colorful and intimate figurative painting of French inspiration, Maurice Brianchon, Christian Caillard...

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