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Still Life with Fruit and Champagne
May 9, 2008
Still Life with Fruit and Champagne by Helen Searle
In my house there's the five-second rule: if some edible falls on the floor and you snatch it back in the alloted amount of time, it's still good enough to eat. Germs only begin to appear after the sixth second. Today, I stood in front of Helen Searle's Still Life with Fruit and Champagne and thought, this spread looks pretty good for being nearly 140 years old. Searle, born in Burlington, Vermont in 1830, painted this still life when she was thirty-six.
In the painting there are grapes, plums, and a peach on a white marble table, and in the middle a glass of champagne. There's also a long branch that has clearly been cut (as opposed to torn) but its leaves have seen better days. In fact, one leaf seems to have been munched on by an insect. One of the yellow plums has a split skin, and there's a broken shell from a nut (possibly a hazel nut?). Most importantly, there's a bee. I wonder who invited him (or her) to the party?
I think the painter was trying to illustrate a bountiful life, as well as the decay that begins to seep in. We all die a little each day: the small changes hardly even register. But then there's the glass of champagne just waiting to be lifted to your lips. Those bubbles won't last forever. I don't know the quaffer's equivalent of the phrase carpe diem. I do know that this painting makes me think about beauty and time, and the life that is spread out before us. The question that comes to mind is: will you reach for the glass and take a sip, or not?
Posted by Howard on May 9, 2008 in American Art Here
Comments
I like this post. Just a thought where there are fruits there got to be a bee... if anything i think the bee completes the painting. Thanks for the post.
Posted by: Debanjan Ghosh | May 10, 2008
I think you're right about the bee--truly the unsung hero of the still life. Thanks for writing!
Posted by: Howard | May 12, 2008
Was the bee her version of the fly that's found in some (eighteenth-century?) still lifes? I like the bee too -- it, and everything else in this painting shouts sweetness. We and the bee are instinctively attracted.
Posted by: halfoff | May 12, 2008
I loved the post. It is amazing to me how the way art is viewed can changed based on someone else's opinion. As I look at the painting, it makes me feel peaceful and relaxed. It makes me think of a time of abundance due to the champagne, amount of fruit, and the way it is displayed. I think of prosperity. As I read the post I saw it in a somewhat different light. The fly could represent neglect. The leaf could represent a time of deterioration. After I read the post I began to see the untouched state of the various items, like the champagne and began to think maybe this painting was intended to represent something entirely different than my initial analysis. I guess that is the beauty of art. I can view a piece and am able to get one thing out of it and another person something completely different.
Posted by: Rachel Mercer | May 15, 2008
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