Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Visit
  • Exhibitions & Events
  • Art & Design
  • Search

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • The Collection
  • Projects & Publications
  • Past Exhibitions

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Introduction

Better Still

Looking at Still Life in the Museum Collection
February 6 - May 2, 2004

The “still life” has a long tradition in the history of art. Images of sumptuous containers filled with flowers, fruits, and vegetables reached a high point in the Netherlands in the 17th century, but their origins date back to the wall paintings of ancient Greece and Rome. The types of familiar domestic objects usually presented have changed little over time, permitting a continuity of appreciation over many generations. The viewer feels an immediate connection to basic household interiors, the necessities of eating and drinking, and the artifacts that surround the daily routines of kitchen, dining room, table, and market.

Still-life painting was long considered the lowest category of picture-making, distanced from the momentous events and moral implications of history painting or formal portraiture. Even so, patrons have always enjoyed its ability to convey wealth and social status. Rare tulip blooms, decorative objects, and small exotic animals have been represented with great skill over the years, as have the fur and feathers of the hunt’s bounty. From a salute to class privilege, humbler visions emerged: a simple breakfast of bread and eggs that might grace the rough table of a country home; a coffee cup and newspaper, representing life in an urban apartment. Compositions also may include references to the passage of time and to nature’s cycles of life, death, decay, and transformation.

In the artist’s studio, the usefulness and appeal of the still-life composition has never diminished. In the 20th century its possibilities expanded to include modernist collage, surrealist constructions, and room-size installations. Artists continue to find willing models in the inanimate objects around them. Their configurations suggest domestic dramas, moments of clarity, and memories of the past that provoke and delight.

Selected Objects

John Frederick Peto

Pipe and Mug, after 1889

Henri Matisse

Still Life with Lemons, 1914

Michele Pace del Campidoglio

Still Life with Figure, ca. 1660

Jane Ogden

Bluebells and Primroses with a Bird’s Nest, 1866

Joseph Cornell

Untitled, 1949-1952

Nassos Daphnis

Three Feathers, 1938

Attributed to Jan van Huysum

Still Life with Flowers, ca. 1715-1730

Jean-Baptiste Oudry

Dead Bird, ca. 1740-1750

Paul Cézanne

Still Life with Apples, ca. 1878

Don Eddy

Peaches, Tomatoes, Watermelons (Supermarket Window I), 1972

Georges Braque

Still Life, 1918

Italian Sardinian

Floral Still Life with Urns, 1700s

Henri Matisse

The Green Pumpkin, ca. 1916

Wayne Thiebaud

Wimbledon Trophy, 1968

Georgia O'Keeffe

Pink Spirea, ca. 1922

Grace Hartigan

Homage to Matisse, 1955

André Derain

Two Roses in a Glass Vase, ca. 1927-1928

Louise Bourgeois

Still Life, 1963

John La Farge

Japanese Crackle Pottery with Camellias, 1879

Attributed to Willem Claesz. Heda

Still Life, 1600s

Fernand Léger

Flowers, 1926

Janet Fish

Boone's Farm Apple Wine, 1972

Florine Stettheimer

Bouquet for Ettie, 1927

Dennis Congdon

Pile, 2000

Ann Hamilton

malediction, 1991

More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

Better Still : Looking at Still Life in the Museum Collection

February 6 - May 2, 2004
View Checklist PDF

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use