Still life with two apples
Unknown artist / imitator of Édouard Manet
19th century
14 × 16 cm
oil on canvas
Musée Magnin , Dijon
Still Life with Two Apples ( French Nature Morte, Deux Pommes or Pommes ) is a picture painted in oil on canvas by an unknown artist. The picture, probably made in the 19th century, was considered an authentic work by the painter Édouard Manet for several decades . Art historians now assume that it is merely a work by an imitator of the artist. The 14 cm high and 16 cm wide painting is in the collection of the Musée Magnin in Dijon .
Image description
The picture shows the two eponymous apples in the middle of the picture in landscape format. The left, slightly larger apple can be seen from the top or bottom, the second apple to the right of it is shown from the side. The two fruits also differ in color. While yellow tones and a dull orange-red predominate in the left apple, the right apple is painted more in a strong red tone with a highlight and has yellow tones at the edge. The painter's loose brushstroke can be seen in both apples and individual, short strokes of color and dabs of color can be seen. On closer inspection, another, smaller, rather reddish apple can be seen in the shadow area next to the two apples on the right.
The fruits lie on a light background, which takes up about the lower third of the picture. This could be a tablecloth or a light stone slab, as it often occurs in still life painting. The upper two thirds are in a monochrome dark brown shade. Due to the shadows falling to the right, a light source can be assumed to the left outside the image. The picture is signed "EM" lower left, but not dated.
Attribution of the image
The painting has been in the museum's possession since the Musée Magnin was founded in 1938. It came to the museum with the art collection of the donor couple Maurice and Jeanne Magnin. The Magnin couple probably bought the painting on the Paris art market, from where they obtained most of their collection. In the private collection of the Magnins it was already described as a work by Édouard Manet in 1922. Accordingly, there is an entry by Jeanne Magnin in the first catalog of French works in the Musée Magnin, published in 1938, in which the picture is also referred to as the work of Édouard Manet. The authors of Manet's catalog raisonnés also considered the painting to be authentic for a long time. Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein took it up in their catalog raisonné published in 1932, followed by Sandra Orienti in 1967 and Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein in 1975. Françoise Cachin , founding director of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris , which contains numerous major works by Manet and is also the author of various Publications on Manet, rejected the image's attribution. Both the painting style of the picture and the signature speak for a fake. Laure Starky also joined this in 2000, who wrote the updated inventory of the museum and named the picture “imitateur de Manet”. The painting is currently not shown in the permanent exhibition, but kept in the depot.
Comparison with Manet's still life
Édouard Manet painted a number of still lifes during various creative phases, including several motifs with apples. Consequently, the still life with two apples in question could also have been a work by Manet. In Sandra Orienti's catalog raisonné, the painting Still life with two apples is dated to 1864. A painting by Manet, created around the same time, shows a still life with two pears (private collection). Despite the similar composition, the two pears are more clearly worked out in detail and the background is also less coarse. There is a much more fleeting brushstroke in Manet's late work. As a result, Rouart / Wildenstein dated the painting Still Life with Two Apples to 1882. In Manet's works Still Life with Three Apples (private collection) from 1880 and Still Life with four apples (private collection) from 1882 there are certainly similarities to the painting Still Life with Two Apples by the unknown artist. The doubts cited by Françoise Cachin regarding the painting style and signature can be understood when comparing it with the other works of Manet.
Édouard Manet:
Still Life with Two Pears , 1864
Édouard Manet:
Still Life with Three Apples , 1880
Édouard Manet:
Still Life with Four Apples , 1882
literature
- Paul Jamot, Georges Wildenstein : Manet, l'oeuvre de l'artiste, catalog critique . Les Beaux-Arts, Paris 1932.
- Jeanne Magnin: Un Cabinet d'un amateur parisien en 1922. Peintures et dessins des écoles étrangères, sculptures . Paris 1922.
- Jeanne Magnin: Musée Magnin, peintures et dessins de l'Ecole française . Impr. Jobard, Dijon 1938.
- Sandra Orienti: Edouard Manet, catalog raisonné . Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-548-36050-5 .
- Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein : Edouard Manet, Catalog raisonné . Bibliothèque des Arts, Paris and Lausanne 1975.
- Laure Starky: Musée Magnin, Dijon: les peintures françaises: catalog sommaire illustré . Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-7118-4093-X .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jeanne Magnin: Un Cabinet d'un amateur parisien en 1922. , No. 642.
- ↑ Jeanne Magnin: Musée Magnin, peintures et dessins de l'Ecole française , No. 666.
- ^ Paul Jamot, Georges Wildenstein: Manet, l'oeuvre de l'artiste, catalog critique , p. 178.
- ↑ German Translation: Sandra Orienti: Edouard Manet, works , Vol I, p. 44.
- ^ Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein: Edouard Manet, Catalog raisonné . Vol. I, No. 409.
- ↑ Laure Starky: Musée Magnin, Dijon: les peintures françaises: catalog sommaire illustré , p. 137