Hello, I am Peter Jonathan Bell, Curator of European Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings at the Cincinnati Art Museum and co-organizer of this exhibition, One Each: Still Lifes by Cézanne, Pissarro and Friends. I will read interpretative materials that accompany this exhibition, including a brief introductory text, descriptions of the seven paintings on display and their labels.

One Each: Still Lifes by Cézanne, Pissarro and Friends

Still life painting has had a complex history since its earliest recognition as an independent genre in the 1600s. At that time, critics valued it lowest among subjects an artist could paint, branding it unoriginal imitation, and yet still lifes achieved incredible popularity among the art-buying public. Another peak of interest in the genre occurred in the mid-1800s, and thereafter it played a crucial role in major artistic movements from Impressionism to Cubism. 

Presented here are paintings by five artists who, in the mid-1860s, used still lifes to experiment with new techniques and pictorial aims in painting. In these years Pissarro, Manet, Cézanne, Bazille, and Monet, were modernizing painting, creating a style—Impressionism—that would polarize the art world and have a profound impact on art to come.

Camille Pissarro wrote “Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.”

Paul Cézanne wrote “Our canvases will turn the [art establishment] red-faced with rage and exasperation.”

The combination of familiar subjects and revolutionary intent captured by these two quotes gets to the crux of the matter. Everyday objects—tablecloth, drinking glass, knife, fish, bread, lemon—are so familiar that the mind catalogues them at a glance, allowing the eye to quickly move beyond the “what” to the “how” of the artistic feat of representation. The artists’ methods of making are put boldly on view—broad and emphatic brushwork, paint sculpted on the canvas. The Impressionists termed this audacious rebalancing of priorities and values in an artwork “sincerity.”