Severin Roesen
American, born Germany, 1816 - 1872Still Life with Fruit, 1855
On view
Oil on canvas on panel
Dimensions17 3/4 × 24 1/4 in. (45.1 × 61.6 cm)
Framed: 27 7/8 × 34 in. (70.8 × 86.4 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John Lord Booth, by exchange, 1994.2
Severin Roesen was a prolific painter who produced tabletop still lifes, predominantly of fruit and flower subjects. Greatly influenced by the Dutch still life tradition, Roesen's paintings present nature's bounty in displays of fruit or flowers offered up on a table, as in Still Life with Fruit. Despite the small scale and fine detail of many of Roesen's still lifes, they have a feeling of monumentality, especially the horizontal compositions, as seen in this work. Still Life with Fruit, typical of many of his arrangements, has a strong diagonal axis created by the grape stems, while the vine tendrils counter the static quality of the composition. Roesen has included a variety of fruits including plums, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, peaches, pears, a lemon, various colors of grapes, as well as a glass of wine and a bird's nest.
