Georges Braque, Fruit, Glass, and Mandolin, 1938, oil and sand on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.4

Food

Artworks center delicacies that range from cakes and oysters to cherries and even peacock. These compositions can be mouthwatering, and there is often symbolism behind the food as well. 

  • A shallow bowl filled with oranges, grapes, and nuts is surrounded by a short, flaring glass, a glass decanter, a lemon, and more nuts arranged along a wooden tabletop in this horizontal still life painting. The objects nearly fill the composition, and the table extends off both sides. The three oranges are pale, with the one at the center nearly yellow, and a stem of dark green leaves lies across the top. A bunch of shriveled grapes, like raisins still on the vine, lies across the almonds and other nuts, all in their shells, in the bowl. The outside of the bowl is white, and it has a gently scalloped rim. A lemon sits to our left of the bowl of fruit, and behind it, the glass decanter has a teardrop-shaped glass stopper. Light coming from the front and our left makes the peachy liquid glow. To our right are four whole walnuts in their shells, with a few grapes hanging from the bowl. Behind the walnuts, a long stemmed, flaring, clear glass is almost filled with the peach-colored liquid. The background is deeply shadowed at the upper left, lightening slightly to elephant gray toward the lower right. The artist inscribed the painting as if he had written his name, date, and location on the front edge of the table, near the lower right corner: “Raphaelle Peale Aug: 5th 1814 Philad:”
  • A basket holding a pile of several kinds of fruit and two blue and white porcelain plates nearly fills this horizontal still life painting. More fruit is scattered around the smoke-gray ledge on which the basket sits, and the background is purple-tinged gray. The basket sits near the back edge of the ledge, and it has ribbed sides so pieces of round fruit, perhaps apples, are visible inside. Green, red, and purple grapes, green and orange grape leaves, apples, plums, apricots, an orange, and a quince are piled between the two blue-painted plates, which are propped in the basket at an angle to hold the fruit like cupped hands. More fruit, including plums, quince, cherries, and medlars, cover most of the ledge around the basket. The scene is lit from our left so the fruit casts shadows to our right. The artist signed the painting near the lower right corner, “B. vander. ast.”
  • Thirteen round cakes sit in three rows, each on a disk-like stand supported on a thin rod, in this horizontal painting. We look slightly down onto the cakes, which only barely overlap. All of the cakes are round except for one, which has been cut in half so we see the four layers of yellow cake and chocolate frosting inside. The top of that cake is white. All of the other cakes are unique except for two angel food cakes at the center, which are slightly different heights. Most of the other cakes have white or brown frosting, except for a pink cake at the front right. That cake has white swags piped on the sides and a pink rose on the top. Next to it is a cake topped with yellow, perhaps lemon curd. The other two cakes in the front row have a white swirl against dark brown frosting, and the fourth, near the left egde, is topped with a single red cherry. Half of a low, pale orange cake is cut off by the left edge of the canvas in the middle row. Each cake stand casts a pale gray shadow against the light, arctic-blue counter. The paint is thickly applied throughout, and the outlines around the cakes, plates, and rods are streaked with rainbow colors. The artist signed the work by incising his name and the date into the wet white paint in the top right corner: “Thiebaud 1963.”
  • We look slightly down onto five plates, bowls, and dishes filled with oysters, raisins, prunes, figs, and sweets along with a wine glass and decanter, a stack of round, wooden boxes, and two seashells arrayed on a wooden tabletop against a dark background in this horizontal still life painting. Closest to us to our left, eleven glistening oysters on the halfshell are arranged on a round, iron-gray dish. Also close to us, to our right, a white porcelain bowl with a wide, flaring lip is painted with blue flowers, and it is piled with breads, rolls, and pastries. Two shells sit near that bowl: one shimmering, spiraling, ivory-white shell with brown marks sits to our left and an elongated, white shell with a ruffle along its length sits in the lower right corner of the panel. Between and behind these two dishes is a vessel with a pedestal foot and a wide, shallow bowl, filled with white almonds and rods that have been covered with white sugar. In the back left, a dark gray bowl holds raisins and other dried fruit along with an object that could be a slice of bread or cheese. Opposite it, a similar dish holds brown figs that more closely resemble chestnuts. To the back right, the lid of one of the three round, shallow boxes stacked along the right edge of the composition leans against the pile. The inner lid is covered with quince paste, which resembles apricot preserves. One glass goblet with a wide bowl is nearly filled with amber-colored liquid in the back left corner, beyond the dried fruit. A glass decanter, also filled with gold-colored wine, sits to our left of the pedestal-footed vessel holding the sugared sweets, at the center of the composition. The still life is brightly lit from our left.
  • Grapes and flowers arranged on a tabletop in front of a dark background fill this horizontal photograph. The image is monochromatic like a black and white photograph but is printed in warm tones of golden and dark browns. The tabletop runs parallel and close to the bottom edge of the composition. It seems to be made of marble and a striped cloth folds over the front edge of the table to our left. Dark grapes are bunched around a vase at the middle of the composition. The vase's tall oval body and long, tapering neck are painted with decorative scrolls and curlicues. A few pieces of small round fruit, perhaps plums, rest on the table in front of the vase. A gleaming goblet to the left and a small figurine of a young boy with a sheaf of wheat to our right are almost lost in the profusion of roses, lilies, hyacinth, and other flowers that fill the space around and behind the objects. The top corners of the photograph are curved, creating a shallow arch.
  • Light from the upper left falls across a glass, a pitcher, peaches in a basket, and other fruit arranged along a brown tabletop or ledge in this horizontal still life painting. The arrangement fills the height and width of the composition, and the table and most of the back wall are mottled with pecan brown and fern green. The background along the left edge of the composition is in deep shadow behind a translucent, wide-mouthed glass. Thin streaks of pale pink and white create reflections in the glass, and a brown hazelnut sits next to it. Moving right and a little farther back on the table, a tall, cinnamon-brown jug is turned so its handle faces us. A low, woven basket piled with at least six peaches sits next to the jug, filling most of the right half of the painting. The basket is lined with pine-green leaves, and the peaches have butter-yellow highlights. Three pieces of fruit sit on the table in front of the basket and jug: two small, frosty green, round pieces are connected by a shared stem and the larger, third piece of fruit is plum purple.
  • Several pieces of fruit, a bunch of green grapes, a stem of raisins, and several types of nuts in their shells are piled on a putty-brown tabletop or ledge with rounded corners against a dark background in this horizontal still life painting. The food is brightly lit from the front, and we look slightly down onto the table. There are two round red apples and two pieces of small yellow fruit, perhaps quinces, flanking a golden yellow pear at the back center. The bunch of grapes drapes over the fruit to our right and the raisins lie between the apples. Thirteen walnuts, peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts, and perhaps a brazil nut are scattered in a loose band in front of the fruit. The surface on which the still life sits becomes swallowed in shadow behind the fruit, and blends into the dark brown background. The artist signed and dated the work in dark paint in the lower right corner, almost lost in shadow under the ledge: “R.S. Duncanson 1848.”
  • Three whole, green pears against a caramel-brown background fill this horizontal still life painting. The painting was created with long, parallel, visible brushstrokes throughout, and a strip of unpainted canvas lines the top edge. We look slightly down onto the fruit, which was painted with thick strokes of lemon-lime, asparagus, and spring green, and each piece of fruit is outlined with navy blue. The two pears to either side stand up and the third, between them, lies on the table with its brown stem angled to our left.
  • A silver butter knife rests across a slice of white bread so its rounded blade is covered with a layer of the vivid yellow spread, presumably butter, that covers the bread in this nearly square painting. The handle of the knife angles from near the bottom center of the composition up toward the top right corner. The handle is cropped by the bottom edge of the painting just below where it meets the blade. The bread on which it rests is also angled toward the upper right corner, so its curved top is cropped. Three more unbuttered slices of bread splay out like a fan beneath it, to our left and into the upper left corner. The bread is eggshell white with soft gray pockmarks to capture the air pockets in the crumb, and each slice has a deep, honey-brown crust. The glossy yellow butter glistens where the light catches it. The area around the slices of bread is the same vibrant yellow of the butter, along the bottom of the canvas.

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We look across the corner of a wooden table piled with books, playing cards, a pipe, matches, and a covered vessel out into an alley between two tall buildings in this square woodcut print. The scene is printed with black ink on cream-white paper. The corner of the table juts toward us, and we realize that the surface of the table seamlessly becomes the floor of the alleyway beyond. Closest to us, on the table, a pipe and two matches rest in a shallow bowl. A five of spades is face up on the pile of cards to our left, and the pipe, bowl, and cards are reflected in a vessel behind them. The vessel has ribbing or ridges around the sides and along the conical cover, radiating out from a ball-shaped handle. A box of matches sits next to the bowl, to our right. Four books are stacked in a pile to our right, against three taller standing books. Six more books, standing with their spine facing inward, are to our left. The farthest books on both sides rest against the side of the buildings that line the alley, as if the buildings were bookends. The buildings each have three or four stories lined with rectangular windows, some with shutters. There are a few retracted awnings, and lines of white laundry are strung between the buildings in the distance. The roofline of the building to our left nearly reaches the top edge of the paper, and the roof of the building to our right is cut off by that edge. People, tables, and goods, tiny in scale, line the shop openings along the bottom floors of the buildings. The numbers “3-‘37” appear in white against black in the lower left corner of the printed image, and the blocky letters “MCE” appear to the lower right. Pencil inscriptions in the margin beneath each corner of the printed image cannot be made out.

Still Life

Artists have long used everyday or natural objects—from a silver platter to a blooming bouquet—to create still lifes. Through these works, they experiment with new styles and convey symbolic meanings.

An abstracted painting of a roughly oval-shaped jack-in-the-pulpit flower fills this vertical composition with cool, saturated blues, grays, and greens. A royal-blue elongated, rounded core at the bottom center is surrounded by a pale gray flame-like shape. Petals flare outward and up around the core to reach toward the sides and top of the canvas. A thin white line extends upward from the top center of the core to meet the pointed tip of the unfurling, innermost midnight-blue petal. Layers of green, reminiscent of leaves, curl outward around the top half of the flower. Pale blue in each of the four corners creates the impression of a background behind the flower, and fades to white at the top corners.

Flowers

A bounty of bouquets can be found in art. Flowers have inspired artists from Vincent van Gogh to Alma Thomas. Eighteenth-century Dutch artist Jan van Huysum painted lavish floral still lifes, while modern painters like Georgia O’Keeffe created far more abstract flowers. Not only are these floral forms beautiful but they also often have symbolic meaning.