Still life analasys of Van Beyeren, Gorky, and Wesslemann

Still Life Paper Assignment

In A Roemer with Grapes, a Pewter Plate and a Roll, van Beyeren

depicts a pewter with some grapes on it on a table with a glass of what I see as

wine, and off to the side there is a roll with some sort of topping. My first

thought was that this was a snack/meal for someone of the upper or upper-

middle class. The caption said, however, that this was a painting of an

everyday scene. I can only derive two things: 1) van Beyeren was upper or

upper-middle class 2) people lived in the Netherlands and every body drank

wine and ate 'rich' food.

The arrangement of the items is somewhat casual as if the consumer

had to answer the door or some other relatively urgent occurrance. I'm not the

best art anyalist, but it seems that van Beyeren doesn't do much for spacing.

Tom Wesselmann, Sunset Nude with Matisse Odalisque...

150 px

Tom Wesselmann, Dropped Bra, 1980, The Contemporar...

It looks as if all the items are about to fall off the table. The table has 'big'

features (i.e.: large legs, thick wood panels, etc.), however, the table has a

rather shallow appearence. This gives the whole painting shallow space.

It seems as if van Beyeren painted A Roemer with Grapes... quickly. He

used good lighting, shading, etc., but the evident brushsrokes adds a 'quick'

effect. It looks like he painted it as fast as the person eating placed his food

down to attend to something else.

Van Beyeren uses dark, earth-tone-style colors (which I believe adds

more to the upper-class feel). There are really no bright or highly contrasting

colors.

Van Beyeren uses thick paint and heavy brushtrokes to characterize this

painting. Even though this painting has heavy brushtrokes, it still has an

evident, 'finished' quality. The work looks complete, and seems to have

realistic look to...