ID: 700001850 Page link: http://vocab.getty.edu/page/cona/700001850	Record Type: Movable Work
Images: 1

Still life (oil painting (visual work); Samuel Peploe (British artist 1871-1935); ca. 1930; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Wellington, Welling...; registration number: 1944-0011-2)

Note: Samuel John Peploe was the eldest of the group of four artists known as the Scottish colourists; the other members were John D Fergusson, George Leslie Hunter and Francis CB Cadell. They were primarily a group of friends who shared similar artistic aims rather than a movement unified by a manifesto. All were strongly influenced by contemporary French painting, and Peploe studied in Paris at L’Académie Julian and L’Académie Colarossi in 1894. His early still lifes show the influence of Manet, but he soon responded to the works of Cézanne and the post-impressionists. He returned to France regularly from 1900, absorbing the lessons of the revolution brought about by Matisse and the fauves, who used intense colour to create dramatic and expressive effects of space and light.Still life was central to Peploe’s art, although he also painted figure subjects and landscapes; a notable example of the latter genre, Iona, 1920–33, is also in Te Papa’s collection. This Still life derives from a tradition of Western painting that emerged in seventeenth-century Holland and Spain. Peploe admired the Dutch masters, especially Frans Hals, whose bravura handling of paint finds an equivalent in the painterly quality of Peploe’s works. Like Manet, Peploe was also influenced by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, particularly the immediacy of his response to the world around him. Unlike seventeenth-century still-life paintings, which often carried hidden moral messages, Peploe’s still lifes were a celebration of pure painting, liberated from overt meaning or associations. The artist took enormous care and time assembling the mundane objects that made up his compositions, but once this had been achieved to his satisfaction he would execute the painting in a single sitting. Such immediacy is clearly visible in Still life, as is Peploe’s modelling of forms through blocks of unmodulated colour. Viewed close up, the work seems to dissolve into a series of random dabs of colour. From a greater distance, the image comes into focus, allowing the viewer to become an active participant in the act of creation. As the eighteenthcentury critic Denis Diderot recognised when observing the works of Jean-Siméon Chardin, still lifes cause us to re-examine the experience of viewing paintings.

Titles:

Still life (preferred,C,U,RP,English,U,U)

Catalog Level: item

Work Types:

oil painting (visual work) [300033799] (preferred)

..... (Objects Facet, Visual and Verbal Communication (hierarchy name), Visual Works (hierarchy name), visual works (works), <visual works by material or technique>, paintings (visual works), <paintings by material or technique>)

Classifications:

paintings (preferred)

Creation Date: ca. 1930

Creator Display:

Samuel Peploe (British artist 1871-1935) [preferred,VP]

artist Peploe, Samuel John (Scottish painter, 1871-1935) [500017759]

Locations:

Current: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand) [500311561] Corporate Bodies (Corp. Body)

Repository Numbers: registration number: 1944-0011-2

Credit Line: Purchased 1944

Display Materials: oil on hardboard

	oil paint (paint) [300015050]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by function>, coating (material), <coating by form>, paint (coating), <paint by composition or origin>)

	hardboard [300014203]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by origin>, biological material, plant material, <wood and wood by product>, <wood by product>, wood board)

Dimensions: Image: 440 x 390; Frame 645 x 596 x 101 mm

Style/Period/Group/Movement:

	Post-Impressionist [300021508] (preferred,)
	.....(Styles and Periods Facet, Styles and Periods (hierarchy name), <styles| periods| and cultures by region>, European, <modern European styles and movements>, <modern European fine arts styles and movements>)

General Subject:

still lifes (preferred)

Specific Subjects:

	fruit [300011868]
	.....(Objects Facet, Components (hierarchy name), components (objects parts), <components by specific context>, biological components, plant components) (AAT)

	table (support furniture) [300039548]
	.....(Objects Facet, Furnishings and Equipment (hierarchy name), Furnishings (hierarchy name), furnishings (works), <furnishings by form or function>, furniture, <furniture by form or function>, support furniture) (AAT)

	flower vase [300311561]
	.....(Objects Facet, Furnishings and Equipment (hierarchy name), Containers (hierarchy name), containers (receptacles), <containers by form>, vessels (containers), vases) (AAT)

	flower (plant component) [300132399]
	.....(Objects Facet, Components (hierarchy name), components (objects parts), <components by specific context>, biological components, plant components) (AAT)

List/Hierarchical Position:

..... Movable Works

.......... Movable Works by class: drawings, paintings, prints, other two-dimensional media

Sources and Contributors:
Still life	........ [VP,TePapa]
	........ Te Papa online (2000-) http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/ObjectDetails.aspx?oid=37567; accessed 22 August 2012
	........ Te Papa spreadsheet (2012)

Subject: ....... [VP,TePapa]

....................... Te Papa spreadsheet (2012)

Note:
English	..... [VP]
	..... Te Papa online (2000-) accessed 22 August 2012