French Realist School (c. 1850) - Anacreontics

- Oil on canvas. - Before this exquisite mid-19th-century French still life, we find ourselves on the threshold of a visual feast that evokes the pleasure of the senses and the celebration of life. As if it were a pictorial echo of the verses of Anacreon, a Greek poet of the 6th century BC, the composition invites us into a world where pleasure is an art form and enjoyment, a philosophy. On an immaculate tablecloth, the fruits of the earth are arranged in harmony and abundance: bunches of grapes, golden and red like the wine of ancient banquets, a peach with a juicy pulp, figs wide open, revealing their purple interior, and a ripe melon, which seems to release its sweetness into the air. These fruits, symbols of desire and sensuality, are not only a representation of the natural world, but a tribute to the art of living well. The warm colours of the fruit contrast with the dark background, where the leaves and branches suggest the passage of time, a subtle reminder of the transience of pleasures, like a hidden memento mori. But here, death is not melancholic, but rather an incentive to enjoy the fullness of the moment, an echo of the Epicurean thought: "carpe diem", seize the day. The painter, with a mastery that borders on the sensual, has achieved an extraordinary play of textures: the velvety skin of the peach, the translucent shine of the grape, the moist flesh of the figs, the freshness of the leaves. All is enveloped in a soft golden light, which accentuates the voluptuousness of the scene and transforms the table into an altar of nature, where each fruit is a symbol of ephemeral pleasure. In Anacreontic poetry, wine and fruit are metaphors for love and the exaltation of existence. This painting, with its opulence and delicacy, seems to illustrate those verses that celebrated ephemeral beauty and remorseless joy. There is no pain, only sweetness. There is no penance, only pleasure. The painter of this still life does not only show us a composition of fruits, but a philosophy of life painted in oil: an ode to voluptuousness, to the harmony of the senses and to the inexorable invitation of pleasure. - Dimensions of the unframed image: 46 x 38 cm / 58 x 50 cm with magnificent frame. - Galerie Montbaron includes a technical sheet established by a qualified art historian with all its lots. This form is sent in digital format and on request.