Still Life with Grapes and Nuts

1865
Huile sur toile
38 x 46 cm - 15 x 18 in.
Signé et daté en bas à droite : F. Bazille 1865
Collection particulière
Dernière mise à jour : 2023-12-22 18:37:35
Référence : MSb-81

The corpus of Frédéric Bazille's work will never stop amazing us. Among the early works, we will now count this Still Life with Grapes and Nuts executed in 1865, which proves that Bazille had then acquired an incomparable mastery of painting. A talent that is also expressed through The Improvised Field Hospital, Beach at Sainte-Adresse and Frédéric Bazille with a Palette, all painted at the same time.

However, this remarkable still life contrasts with other paintings whose naivety may surprise us, such as the Farm at Saint-Sauveur (1863), the Reclining Nude (1864) and the Landscape at Saint-Sauveur (1865). Here reigns the light that springs from the grapes and nuts. The latter are gorged with sunlight that is restored by the generous material used by Bazille. The latter had already been interested in subjects of daily life in the Soup Cover Bowls and his Two Herrings from 1864. This still life as the Still Life with Fish (1866) do remind Manet, to whom Bazille  would get closer, particularly in his paintings Young Woman with Peonies at the end of his short life? By comparing Bazille to Manet, we are aware of bringing Bazille to the level of the greatest impressionist painters with nevertheless the irregularities we know him for.