Still Life & Genre

Still Life paintings have been around in a variety of forms for many years and are something we all know well. Usually consisting of arranged flowers, food, animals and sometimes other objects. It is a style of painting that is often created, but rarely perfected. These artists have managed to add such minute detail to their images that in some cases it is difficult to tell whether the image is a painting, or, in fact, a photograph.

The term "genre" can apply to all types and styles of painting, but for our purposes, we will narrow down the meaning to apply to market scenes, banquet scenes, everyday subjects that exemplify domestic settings on a small scale.* Generally quiet in their representation, Genre scenes are calming and sweet, but sometimes satirical in nature. One of our leading masters in Genre and Still Life painting is Chardin. Look at his images to get a clear idea of beauty in our everyday world. And as always, if you don't see the image you are looking for, contact us. We can still recreate it.

*The Yale Dictionary of Art and Artists; E. Langmuir and N. Lynton; first published as a Yale Nota Bene book (2000)