Still Life, Chardin, and Merlot

“I must forget everything I have seen and even forget the way such objects have been treated by others.” Chardin

Sometimes, heroism comes in almost undetected ways. The 18th century was known for its over-the-top, heavily designed, and embellished work in a rather aristocratic style known as Rococo. Serious paintings in that day were only supposed to concern themselves with great, classical, historical events. Genre scenes and little still life paintings were actually considered “craft” by the tastes of the period. However, Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin, a son of bourgeois artisan cabinet makers, held to his interest in the small, the everyday, the commonly beautiful things of life and to seeing them anew, fresh, and unique. In doing so, he continued the long human tradition of painting objects, or still life, as we call it, and became one of the great masters of it.

Still life paintings show up in the Middle Ages often as decorative borders in illuminated manuscripts. As Europe moved into the Renaissance, paintings sometimes had small lovely still life compositions as part of the general setting of a larger work. Below we can see an example from Van Eyke’s The Arnolfini Marriage Portrait, 1434, where there is a casual representation of items indicating domesticity, like the fruit on the window sill and the table. Of course in the 17th century, painters like Pieter Claesz did banquet pieces showing huge glasses of wine. One also has the little wonders found in works done by Vermeer, like the white wine jar in The Glass of Wine, 1660.

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A bit earlier, 1428, Robert Campin’s Merode Altarpiece has perhaps the most elegant drifting smoke ever painted. (The pot, the flowers and the book aren’t bad either.)

“Who says one paints with colors? One employs colors; one paints with feelings.” Chardin

While Chardin also painted genre paintings of daily life, his real mastery was in the still life paintings. His most famous one, The Ray, 1728, which now hangs in the Louvre, shows a table above which a dead ray fish is hanging. He adds in a bit of a narrative with the cat that is obviously interested in those oysters. It shows the rather brutal reality of life, which includes the death of the things we eat. It is not a lovely sight, but it is a real one and not done in the soft light of many of his other still life paintings, like for instance The Seville Orange, Silver Goblet, Apples, Pear, and Two Bottles, 1750. (See below)

Here unlike the jumble of items on the table in The Ray, the setting is simple with the items each in their own space. The stand out, literally because of its position, is the Seville orange. It is pushed to the edge of the table almost like an offering. We see the roughness of the orange peel as opposed to the smooth surfaces of the apples. It’s an exotic creature, different from the northern fruits. As proof, it still bears a leaf and long stem from the tree which bore it somewhere in the southern reaches of Spain, the land where the Moors first introduced citrus fruits to Europe (along with sugarcane). The painting balances the warm colors of the orange, the apples, and pear with the cool blue glass of one of the bottles and the shiny silver of the goblet. The shine on that goblet even allows for a tiny mirror image still life. All of the items sit upon what looks like a stone ledge and are posed against a bluish/gray background that itself has hints of beige/brown shadows. This works as a way to tie it into that ledge and the one bottle of brownish liquid in order to balance the color scheme of the painting. But what about the feeling? To me this seems the story of a visual conversation with each item speaking in its own voice, perhaps to welcome that exotic stranger from Seville that sits a bit apart from them.

And the beat goes on...

Still life painting remains with us even in this age of abstraction, color field painting, and deconstructed images. One very fine painter of still life that can both show the appreciation of individual objects, use colors and also tell a story is Ed McKay. 

In the oil painting above, he, like Chardin, employs colors beautifully but paints with feelings. Each object in the painting is balanced against the others. The yellow in the dish of herbs takes the eye to the warm yellows of the teapot handle, echoed by the rich yellow of the lemons. That trail of yellows takes the eye all the way across the canvas. The ravens come into play as well, as the raven in the foreground picks at a yellow almond cookie, while the raven on the tea chest sports some yellow head feathers. That use of yellow moves the eye from the bottom of the painting to the top. The contrast of the rich browns and grayish blues provide a sense of dimension and are sparked by those yellows. The alignment of the dish, cups, and teapot move in a diagonal echoed by the body of the raven in the foreground and offset by the diagonal body of the raven on the tea container.

Those diagonals give us the idea of action and tell us that those ravens are up to something. The highlights on the backs of the birds share the same pale blue as the teacups they have disturbed. One bird has claimed the Asian tea chest while his companion inspects an almond cookie. Both act as though they have been invited, though we know and they know that they have not. An interesting tale unfolds here on the table, which the viewer can interpret as he or she likes, making it all the more magical.

You can find more of Ed McKay’s fascinating work here at edmckayart.com and at Squash Blossom Gallery in Old Colorado City (Colorado Springs, CO. squashblossom.com). An article on the painter, “Ed McKay: An Artist’s Journey” can be found at vernellestudio.com

Note: The art works used here are in public domain, except that of Ed Mckay’s painting. It is used with the permission of the artist.

Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.com or her author page at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com.

Who says they are not drinking any (expletive) Merlot?

Merlot comes from a perfectly fine grape, though it seems to have become overused in wine making in the 1990s to the point where comments like the one that Paul Giamatti’s character makes in the film rang a bell with some wine drinkers. As reported in “The Sideways Effect”(npr.org), production using merlot was already sliding when the movie came out, because of over planting in not the best soil. However, after the film, the sales of merlot dropped while sales of pinot noir (the wine the film favored) gained some 16%.

However, the days of kicking merlot to the curb are over, because there really are things about a good merlot to be appreciated and valued. First of all the name is rather wonderful. Merlot is the French for blackbird, and the wine has a deep red color touched with the dark blue of the grape. That color helped it at the beginning of its comeback, as merlot, the color, was a fall fashion color for 2016. By 2017, Bloomberg News even announced that “The Sideways curse has lifted: Merlot is having a comeback.” More recently Marissa Ross on bonappetit.com officially declared that “Merlot is Back” and not in the sense of the TV people from Poltergeist.

And now comes the best part: the food!

Lamb chops aren’t the only delicious idea for food pairings with merlot. Always Ravenous also presents a kale and butternut squash salad for the vegetable conscious among us and gives the complete recipe, along with several other yummy ideas (alwaysravenous.com). Beyond that there are always old standbys like filet mignon with mushroom sauce or other meats like pork or veal. It easily accompanies an appetizer plate of cold cuts and cheeses. Even mac and cheese goes well with merlot. How can we dismiss such a versatile wine? So let’s get back to some good basics and get a bottle of good merlot, and watch our weight with something that has a smooth taste with a hint of cherries and plums. Hmm, plums – makes me think of Chardin’s painting at the top of this page.

California is one of the best merlot growing areas on the planet. It is grown in both the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Here is where trying out a selection makes joining a wine club a handy thing to do. Cellars Wine Club has the West Coast Wine Club with excellent selections, a “no bad bottle” return policy and free shipping. Take a look here cellarswineclub.com or go to the page on Cellars Wine Club on the right of this page.

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©marjorie vernelle 2020

COMING SOON ON OF ART AND WINE: THE PORTRAIT, ANCIENT TO MODERN, AND SEMILLON WINE.

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Everyone wants to be known. Everyone wants to be remembered. Everyone wants to be seen. Since the first man polished a piece of copper so that it reflected his image, we have all been captives of the image. Some have had their images captured in what we came to know as portraits. Portraiture has a long history, and as with all human activity, it has changed as we have changed. Come scan that history and learn about a grape that has been around for a long time as well, Sémillon, and the wines and blends made from it.