Lot 1095 | Fruit Still Life

PREYER, EMILIE
Düsseldorf 1849 - 1930

Title: Fruit Still Life.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 17,5 x 23cm.
Notation: Signed lower right: Emilie Preyer.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Verso:
On the stretcher gallery label Kunsthaus Bühler, Stuttgart.

Literature:
S. Weiß & H. Paffrath (eds.): PREYER. Johann Wilhelm 1803-1889 und Emilie 1849-1930. With the catalogue raisonné of the paintings by Johann Wilhelm and Emilie Preyer, Cologne 2009, p. 174, no. 73.

Provenance:
Private collection, Germany, acquired from Galerie Paffrath, Düsseldorf.

Emilie Preyer's still lifes are supra-temporal in their reduced, concentrated arrangements and their meticulously naturalistic style of depiction. The Düsseldorf artist had studied painting primarily with her father Johann Wilhelm Preyer, but was also allowed to be an unofficial pupil of his professor colleagues at the academy. She inspired throughout her lifetime and to this day with her brilliantly crafted small-format works, which never submitted to modernity.
The painting presented here is a very typical work by the painter.
On a tabletop aligned parallel to the lower edge of the picture and overlapped by the lateral edges, which is covered with a white damask tablecloth, lies the autumnal harvest: overripe, partly slightly burst plums with twig and leaves, blue and light grapes, half an apricot and two hazelnuts.
The harmonious colour effect, the reduced composition in front of the neutral background, accentuated only by the incidence of light, but especially the masterly depiction of the surfaces is fascinating. Emilie Preyer treats the creases and slight compressions of the tablecloth with the same attention as the different degrees of ripeness and surfaces of the fruit and the sweet drops of juice that have attracted a fly.
The creator of this feast for the eyes is one of the few women painters who were able to make a living from her painting in the 19th century. Today, her paintings are represented in national and international collections and museums.