Programme 3: Still Life

The Art Works

Title: The Lowestoft Bowl
Artist: William Nicholson
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1911

William Nicholson (1872–1949) has painted a traditional still life. On a table, covered with a white tablecloth, there is a bowl resting on a tray. There are some tulips at the back of the tray, with a stray petal at the front. The painting is not only a subtle depiction of different textures, but also has a carefully controlled composition. The tray takes up the full width of the painting, as well as stretching from the bottom of the painting to the join between the top of the table and the background. This helps to create a balanced, calm and contained appearance.

Title: Still Life with Water Jug
Artist: Paul Cézanne
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: c.1892–3

Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) worked on a number of still life and landscape paintings which he abandoned when he realised he could not make them work. Others he stopped painting when he thought he had said enough about the subject he was depicting. Different people argue which category this painting falls into. It shows a variety of objects including fruit, dishes and a water jug on a tabletop, some of which are very sketchy in appearance, others of which are more highly finished. Like the visible chisel marks in Rodin’s The Kiss, the brush strokes in this painting show us the way in which this work has been made.

The water jug, one of the most finished parts of the painting, appears to be standing upright, even though the table appears to be sloping down towards us. It is as if Cézanne was looking down at the table, but across to the jug: he is using two different viewpoints in the depiction of one painting.

Title: Still Life
Artist: Pablo Picasso
Medium: Painted wood and upholstery fringe
Date: 1914

As well as painting, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) also worked as a sculptor. Here he has used various objects to create an assemblage, a sculptural work that has been stuck together rather than carved or modelled. Like Cézanne he uses a number of different viewpoints – the tabletop here really is sloping downwards, and the glass standing on it is vertical. He represents objects in different ways. The glass is effectively two dimensional, almost diagrammatic, while the bread and slices of salami are more realistically shaped and coloured. The upholstery fringe is the most ‘real’ thing – rather than carving wood to look like a fringe, he has used the fringe itself. This realisation that artists could use any materials they liked was one of the most important developments of the 20th century.