Dimensions: support: 806 x 997 mm
Copyright: By permission of the estate of the artist | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: This is "Still Life" by Sir Matthew Smith, currently held in the Tate Collections. Look at these dimensions: the support is 806 by 997 millimeters. Editor: The colors grab you immediately, don't they? It's a warm, almost earthy palette, but with these surprising pops of violet and green. Curator: Smith was fascinated by the tactile quality of paint itself. It's evident here, the way he builds up the layers, almost sculpturally. What can it tell us about the materials? The texture of the surface? Editor: I'm also thinking about the rise of the domestic interior as a site for painting in the early 20th century, what that meant for women as artists, and for the whole genre of still life. Curator: And the social context of consumption is evident in the display of these fruits and flowers. They become commodities to be arranged and presented. Editor: It's incredible how Smith captures a sense of fleeting beauty and underlying structure. Curator: Absolutely. This piece provides such great insight into the production, consumption, and historical context of still life painting. Editor: And I appreciate the way it makes us think about the display and the meaning of such ordinary objects.
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In the 1930s Smith lightened the colours of his painting. This was in contrast to the sometimes impenetrable reds and browns he had used earlier. This still life is based on the weird mauve colour of the anemone flowers in the basket at the left. In some places the paint is thin, so that the white ground shines through as in a watercolour. The design is like a still life by Cézanne, but Smith's fluid brushstrokes suggest the liveliness of the fruit.This is one of Smith's largest still lifes. He and his wife chose it to present to the Tate Gallery during the war, as a memorial to their two sons, their only children, both killed while serving with the Royal Air Force. Gallery label, September 2004
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