Still Life
Severin ROESEN
(German, ca. 1815-ca. 1872 (active USA))
Still Life
Dateby 1862
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionsoverall: 25 x 35 in. (63.5 x 88.9 cm)
frame: 33 1/2 × 43 3/8 × 2 1/2 in. (85.1 × 110.2 × 6.4 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Gift of Mrs. Sterling Morton to the Preston Morton Collection
Object number1960.79
Subject(s)
- food
- flower
- still lifes
- fruit
- flowers
Collection
- 19th century American
- American
Sub-Collection(s)
- German
- American
On View
On viewCollections
Label TextLittle documentary evidence remains about the circumstances of Roesen’s coming to America. German-born, perhaps in Cologne, Roesen became one of the most prolific specialists of decorative so-called “dining-room” pictures of fruits and flowers. This painting is typical of his signature style, including standard elements like the marble tabletop, and even the repeatable arrangement of flowers in a cut-glass goblet, crowned by the white calla lily. Like his predecessor, Johann Wilhelm Preyer (1803-1889), another immigrant from Germany who brought with him the hard-edged illusionism of the Düsseldorf school, Roesen made innumerable repetitions of similar fruits and flowers, arranging and rearranging their constituent parts. These impossible juxtapositions of flora and fruit (in reality, they were never in season at the same time) were interpreted in the 19th century as symbols of God’s bounty in the new world.
