Lot 1176 | Still Life with Grapes, Plaum on a Branch, a Sliced Apricot and Hazelnuts

PREYER, EMILIE
Düsseldorf 1849 - 1930


Title: Still Life with Grapes, Plaum on a Branch, a Sliced Apricot and Hazelnuts.
A fly on an embroidered damask cloth.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 17 x 23,5cm.
Notation: Signed lower right: Emilie Preyer.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

The Düsseldorf-born artist Emilie Preyer is best known for her detailed fruit still lifes. She shared her preference for this genre with her father, Johann Wilhelm Preyer. As women were not allowed to study art at the Academy of Arts at that time, Emilie Preyer learned painting from her father and his fellow artists in Düsseldorf and for this reason is still considered an unofficial student of the Royal Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf.
The present painting shows an arrangement of fruits and nuts executed with meticulous detail. On a table covered with white damask are three plums, already overripe and slightly cracked, with twig and leaves, a few hazelnuts and half a cut apricot already pitted. The arrangement in the background is flanked by light and dark grapes, while in the foreground a fly cautiously approaches the sweet nectar of the fruit, which has already dripped onto the tablecloth.
Emilie Preyer's fruit still lifes still inspire their viewers today because of their timelessness. Already in our last FINE ART auctions, we were frequently able to sell very comparable versions of the theme from Emlie Preyer's studio and thus set auction records with works from the Preyer family.