ADOLF HEINRICH HANSEN (1859-1925) Interior in Overførstegaarden
This work is characteristic of Hansen’s painted interiors; the perspective, light source and detail carefully studied and calibrated to obtain an extremely realistic trompe l’oeil effect of space and...
View ArticleGeorge Weissbort – Brass Saucepan
Weissbort often returns to Chardin in his still life paintings, as here. Chardin could elevate the humblest everyday object to an image resonant with depth and symbolism, at the same time producing a...
View ArticleGEORGE WEISSBORT (1928-) Still life with pink Alba roses in a silver tankard
Pink roses have a long history in painted art; they are found in Pompeiian frescoes (c.50 BC to 79 AD), on the borders of illuminated manuscripts – with both decorative and symbolic functions – and in...
View ArticleGEORGE WEISSBORT (1928-) The little red cassoulet; s. & d. ’68
A still life built on the complementaries of red and green, as if combining the Old Master qualities of a Velasquez with the vibrant colours of a Matisse, this is an unusual and striking composition....
View ArticleGEORGE WEISSBORT 1928- Still life with cherry plums and a blue & white tureen
Many of Weissbort’s still life paintings are related to those of the 18th century Chardin – in their viewpoint (as here, arranged on a shelf or table aligned with the edge of the canvas); in their...
View ArticleGEORGE WEISSBORT 1928- Still life with onion plaits, wooden cheese box, fruit...
In this work, Weissbort seems to be looking again at the paintings of Melendez (1716-80), in which humble items were rendered heroic – in contrast, for instance, to works by the 17th century Willem...
View ArticleCarl Schuch
This present painting is related to Carl Schuch’s Still life with apples, a wine glass and a pewter jug, c.1876, in the collection of the Neue Pinakothek, Munich. It uses exactly the same...
View ArticleMARTIN SWAN Lymington Harbour
Under a dun-coloured overcast sky of late afternoon, the various boats shift and relax, reflecting the diffused glow of a low sun. A raised horizon, high on the picture plane, focuses the attention on...
View ArticleMARTIN SWAN Boats moored at Cowes
In August 2001 the Americas Cup Jubilee Regatta was held at Cowes, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the original ‘Americas Cup’ race (then known as the Hundred Guinea Cup) staged there in 1851....
View ArticleMARTIN SWAN The Hundred Guinea Cup, Cowes 2012
A celebration of the historic Hundred Guinea Cup race of 75 nautical miles around the Isle of Wight, first instituted in 1851, and shown here in the event held at Cowes in July 2012. The low horizon of...
View ArticleSTEPHEN ROSE – The blue hydrangea65.1
The strong, sculptural shapes of the flowerheads and piercing spectrum of blues make this an unusual, even subversive flowerpiece. It has not been the subject of choice for many flower painters,...
View ArticleSTEPHEN ROSE – The grace of tulips
The flowerpieces of the 17th century, even before the ‘tulipmania’ of the 1630s, heroized the tulip for its gracefully form, brilliant colouring, and feathery stripes (induced by a virus in the bulb)....
View ArticleSTEPHEN ROSE – The peony vase
This is a striking image, which could be described as monumental if its power were not undercut by the playful subject. Fresh, contemporary and vivid, the model boat rides its waves of bubble wrap with...
View ArticleSTEPHEN ROSE – The worn leather chair (Errol’s chair)
Most chairs in art are occupied: Frans Hals’s Portrait of Willem van Heythuysen tipping back on two legs of his; Raphael’s Madonna della seggiola; and perhaps the chairs with most personality, in the...
View ArticleSTEPHEN ROSE – Clementines
Clementines are rare in Old Master paintings: far more exotic and unusual than other citrus fruit. Thus, in a Hans van Essen still life of a table weighted with luxurious items – lobsters, a silver...
View ArticleSTEPHEN ROSE – eggs / tray
The humble subject has as long a history in still life painting as the assemblage of luxury items, and – from Roman wall-paintings to the present day – bowls and baskets of eggs have been depicted...
View ArticleSTEPHEN ROSE – The mirror of Venus (Scent)
A vibrantly colourful decorative piece which is almost an abstraction, this painting of a group of scent bottles seems a work of pure representation – a study of surface effects and physical...
View ArticleSTEPHEN ROSE – garlic
Another humble kitchen subject, garlic, like onions, surfaces in much earlier still life paintings, such as Luis Melendez’s striking Still life with bream, oranges and garlic, 1772, Prado. It creates a...
View ArticleSTEPHEN ROSE – chinese bowl
Blue & white china has formed one of the grand luxe objects for collectors since the 16th century, at least, and thus also one of the elements of a still life composed to express opulence wealth...
View ArticleSTEPHEN ROSE – yacht
This is a striking image, which could be described as monumental if its power were not undercut by the playful subject. Fresh, contemporary and vivid, the model boat rides its waves of bubble wrap with...
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