Arrangement of Jugs by Frances Hodgkins

In honor of our newest edition, Frances Hodgkins's vibrant, vibrating still life Arrangement of Jugs, we're digging into the genre today! Folks often think still lifes just trade in humble fruit and flowers, but the genre's history and capacity goes way beyond that. Still lifes can serve as technical artistic show-off feats, exist as expert studies in color and form, capture moments in time, and exalt and document the beauty that's all around us, often using that beauty to tell stories through symbolism, metaphor and allegory.

The genre really blossomed in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in the Netherlands during the Dutch Golden Age. Artists of that period including Willem Claesz Heda and Rachel Ruysch turned tables topped with lemons, oysters, and overflowing bouquets into dazzling displays of texture and light. The genre's genesis goes way back much further in the wayback machine, though, to Ancient Rome.

Ancient Roman homes in places like Pompeii featured frescoes of bread and game so realistic you might feel tempted to reach out and grab a drumstick or a cheese hunk. Over time, still life became a playground for symbolism (skulls for mortality, wilting flowers for fleeting beauty) and later a laboratory for experimentation, as artists such as Paul Cézanne used apples and pitchers to rethink perspective itself.

What started as seemingly paintings of “just stuff” evolved into a surprisingly bold way for artists to show off, philosophize, and to occasionally make you very hungry or wanting to hit the thrift store to find some beautiful jugs of your own to arrange.

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There's Still Life 🌸 🏺