Severin Roesen Used Fruit, Wine In Famous Still-Lifes
“Severin Roesen (c. 1815 in Boppard – c. 1872) was a Prussian-American painter known for his abundant fruit and flower still-lifes and is today recognized as one of the major American painters in that genre from the nineteenth century,” according to Wikipedia.
One of my favorite Roesen paintings is “Fruit Still Life,” which I was able to find a photo of on Wikipedia.
Of more than 300 Roesen paintings, just over 20 are dated.
“While Roesen's paintings reveal a meticulous attention to detail in their precise arrangements and close brushwork, his subject matter, even down to specific motifs, did not change throughout his career,” Wikipedia noted. “Sometimes he made near-identical copies of paintings, but usually he merely rearranged and reassembled stock elements.
“Numerous items in ‘Fruit and Wine Glass,’ for example, also appear in other paintings. A footed dessert plate full of strawberries is a common motif. A pilsner glass, sometimes accompanied by an open bottle of champagne, is interchangeable with a wine goblet filled with lemonade used elsewhere. The glass is nearly always placed at the lower left edge of the painting; a halved lemon often appears nearby.
“Branches full of grapes arranged from lower left to upper right provide the composition with a graceful S-curve and subtly lead the viewer's eye over the entire display,” Wikipedia continued. “Here the composition is balanced by light and dark grapes at either side and filled in by scattered raspberries, cherries, peaches, apples, pears, and apricots. Many of these compositional elements, if not the items depicted, were derived from seventeenth-century Dutch still-life paintings by such artists as Jan van Huysum.”
Severin Roesen, Still Live with Fruit and a Wine GlassThis Still Life with Fruit and a Wine Glass by Severin Roesen (1816-ca. 1872) was photographed in January 2016 at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, Calif. Oil on panel. (ca. 1850-1870) On loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Purchased with the Joseph E. Temple Fund in 1969 (1969-259-1). Its dimensions are 11 3/4 x 16 in. (29.8 x 40.6 cm).
Severin Roesen, Still Life with a Basket of Fruit"Still Life with a Basket of Fruit" by Severin Roesen (1816-ca. 1872). Courtesy of Wikipedia.
Severin Roesen, Still Life With FruitStill Life With Fruit by Severin Roesen (1816-ca. 1872). Courtesy of Wikipedia. This image was in the U.S. White House at the time I posted this.
