Interior Still Life With Porcelain Vases, Miniature Portrait and Virtue, 1942

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Description

A finely executed mid-20th century still life oil painting on canvas, signed and dated lower right by an unidentified hand … Read more A finely executed mid-20th century still life oil painting on canvas, signed and dated lower right by an unidentified hand and dated 1942.

The composition centers around a richly detailed tabletop tableau, where an assortment of artfully arranged domestic objects convey both aesthetic harmony and subtle narrative. A terracotta potted plant with desiccated leaves anchors the scene, flanked on either side by a pair of vividly enameled Chinese Export-style porcelain vases, the one at left lidded and the other doubling as a floral vessel holding a lively bouquet of strawflowers and carnations in muted golds, reds, and whites. At far left, a closed black box—perhaps a jewelry casket—rests beside a strand of beads and a floral boutonnière, suggestive of memory or loss. A scarlet-bound book, likely a volume of poetry or devotional writing, rests partially open in the foreground atop a patterned textile. Behind it, a pale blue and white envelope or illustrated card introduces a faint note of correspondence or passage of time. Suspended on the rear wall above the assemblage is an oval portrait miniature of a woman in white dress with soft brown hair, placed within a black frame—its pastoral background evoking 19th-century sentimental portraiture and enhancing the intimate nostalgia of the overall mood.

The artist’s brushwork is expressive yet controlled, with careful attention to surface textures: the soft terrycloth weave of the table covering, the luminous glaze on the porcelain, and the dusty, brittle realism of the dried botanical elements. The color palette is restrained yet punctuated by calculated bursts of vibrancy—red, gold, green—imbuing the stillness with a quiet vibrancy. The background wall is painted in neutral gray-green tones, lending emphasis to the vibrancy of the still life elements.

The painting is presented in a finely carved and giltwood frame with a raised foliate inner border and classical motifs to the cove and outer edges, complementing the work’s traditional aesthetic and anchoring it within the lineage of European still life painting while affirming its early American modernist sensibility.

Measurements: 24.25" w x 20.25" h. See less