Pan is Dead (Still Life) 1911

George Washington Lambert made this painting, titled Pan is Dead (Still Life), with oils, and it’s a fascinating conversation between life and death, artifice and nature. Look at the sculptural bust—it’s painted with these short, almost frantic strokes, giving it a real sense of volume, like you could reach out and touch it. Then there are the roses, soft and delicate, a counterpoint to the rigid form of the sculpture. Lambert uses a limited palette, mostly whites, creams, and blacks, but it’s how he manipulates the paint, thick in some areas, thin in others, that really brings the piece to life. The gloves slumped at the base, painted in great detail, almost like the artist wanted to highlight their limpness in contrast to the vitality of the flowers. It reminds me a bit of Manet's still lifes, the way he captured the fleeting beauty of everyday objects. But here, Lambert adds this layer of theatricality with the bust of Pan, and suddenly it’s not just a still life, it’s a meditation on mortality and the enduring power of art.