+ Expand

Description: Roderic O'Conor, R.H.A.
1860-1940
still life with fruit and flowers
signed and dated 1924
oil on canvas
65 by 53.5 cm., 25 1/2 by 21 in.
In the 1920s, O'Conor was friendly with a number of the artists of the School of Paris, including Dunoyer de Segonzac and Ortiz de Zarate. He shared with them a delight in exploiting the plastic qualities of oil paint, applying it generously with the palette knife to a range of studio-based subjects. Still lifes were a particular passion. Still Life - Fruits is one a number of works the artist completed which combine fruit, flowers and drapery in a vertical format, making for a sense of opulence. He used dark backgrounds as a contrast to the brighter accents of the fruit and flowers, and arranged his compositions with the utmost attention to shape as well as colour. In this case, the placement is founded on a series of diagonals, cropping the corner of the table in order to bring the objects closer to the picture plane. The work was one of only five which the artist selected for public exhibition in 1924.
Jonathan Benington 2001
Exhibited:
Paris, Salon d'Automne, 1924, no.1417.