Still Life
Pablo Picasso Spanish
Not on view
Still Life may appear to be casually concocted from scrap materials but is rife with playful allusions to favorite motifs of trompe l’oeil painters: a table that thrusts forward, a precariously balanced knife, a cut-crystal glass half full of wine, and the leftovers of a meal. The pattern Picasso painted on the beading, which represents a chair rail, is an abbreviated replica of the faux moldings of wallpaper borders, while the real upholstery fringe stands in for the costly textiles featured in illusionistic still lifes. A type of trompe l’oeil known as a chantourné, a painting cut to the shape of the thing depicted, may have inspired this eccentric silhouette.
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