Seeing as my favourite era for any painting is the Renaissance and the Dutch Golden Age, I was very pleased that this was one of research points for still life. One of the flower artists of the 17th century that I admire would be Ambrosius Bosschaert, whose work is shown above. During this period, flowers emerged as an artist’s subject due to the rising interests of botany and horticulture. Also many artists wanted to convey the brevity of life in their paintings and the certainty of death as well as the gradual decay, therefore using flowers, dead animals, food and skulls. Bosschaert was one of the first to master painting detailed still life’s and the one who began the tradition of flower paintings themselves, with a technique of symmetry. Personally, I love his work due to the execution of chiaroscuro, and how he uses extreme shadows to make the bouquets come forward and separate them from the background.
One iconic painting for myself is Vanitas by Antonio de Pereda y Salgado. Vanitas translated means worthlessness and connects well to the brevity of life and the definite death that comes to us all, in this painting the artist conveys an Angel visiting someone’s belonging after they have passed. He conveys the idea of wealth and education, luxuries and comfort, but amongst the delights comes a candle burnt out, no longer needed for any use and skulls piled up of decayed bodies gone and perhaps forgotten, but I believe the true message is that you are not remembered for the possessions you leave, and greed may come and haunt you in the form of an Angel.
Through the 19th century, Vincent van Gogh is highly known for his post- impressionist paintings and his sunflowers and flowers in general are admired throughout the entire world of art. Personally, I love his use of colour and the clashes in his palette and the vibrancy through all his works, but most of all the idea that he shows observation skills but somehow manages to create a style rather than a copy, which I hope to be able to show in the course.
Also from the 19th century is Georges Braque, who emphasises shape and form but also a sense of depth and mood with his use of broad shadows and highlights, that reminds me of a refined tonal study. The use of a muted palette gives a calm and quiet atmosphere and the combination of objects sets a realistic scene.
However, my favourite still life artist is Tamara de Lempicka who was most famous as an Art Deco artist influenced by cubism. As one can see from the images of her work below, she has a similar style to Braque’s, but instead of leaving a rough texture on the paint, de Lempicka polishes her work and creates smooth controlled tonal studies where tenebrism is exaggerated in order to create a mood in all her still life’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosius_Bosschaert
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_de_Pereda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh
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