The artwork “Still Life with Pears and Apples” was created by Gustave Courbet around 1873. Courbet, a renowned artist of the Realism movement, chose oil on canvas as his medium. This still life painting belongs to a private collection. The genre of still life is a testament to the movement’s emphasis on depicting ordinary subject matter with truth and accuracy.
In examining the artwork, one encounters a composition that centers on an arrangement of fruit. The surface supporting the pears and apples is nondescript, bathed in shadows that blend seamlessly into the dark, almost monochromatic background. The textured brushwork gives a tactile quality to the fruit, emphasizing the materiality that is characteristic of Realism. The pears and apples are rendered with muted tones, and the use of light and shadow imbues them with volume and weight. The painting is devoid of any unnecessary adornment or idealization, adhering to the Realist principles of portraying scenes and objects as they are. Despite the simplicity of its subject and composition, the painting resonates with a quiet intensity and an attention to the subtleties of form and color, making it a representative work of Courbet’s skill as a master of the still life genre within Realism.
