Still life with Peaches

The simple contours and reduced colour palette characteristic of Josef Čapek’s work in the early 1920s designate Still Life with Peaches as a flagship work of this period. Strong, outlined contours emphasise the rounded shapes of the depicted objects, whether goblet, bowl or ripe peach. In Čapek’s hands, the traditional genre of the still life becomes a means of experimentation with form and composition. His approach was distinguished by a certain naïve stylisation, which was not an expression of artlessness, but a conscious artistic decision and an expression of the author’s conviction of the need for a return to the elementary values of art. The flat stylisation of the motif and the simplification of the shapes express his longing for the “most unpretentious” art and his attempt to find an artistic language that would correspond to a notion of modern painting liberated from its descriptive function. His still lifes from the early 1920s still teetered on the edge of objectivity and the geometric construction of Cubism. Indeed, the tendency towards simplicity of expression was characteristic of the artists from the group Tvrdošíjní (The Stubborn Ones), with whom Čapek was actively exhibiting in this period. The work was made at a time when the artist was already a respected member of the Czech cultural scene and was deeply engaged not only in painting, but also in literary and critical activities. He formed his artistic opinion in dialogue with international waves of the avant-garde, primarily Cubism, but always maintained his distinctiveness and unmistakable style. In Still Life with Peaches, the author does interesting work with the dark layer of the underpainting and the lighter surface colour, which allows him to achieve extraordinary colour tones. His opposition to official art and academism is visible here; he associated these schools with dense oil painting and so painted with almost dry oil. The collector’s value of the work is increased by its presentation in exhibitions (V. exhibition of The Stubborn Ones, Krasoumná jednota [Fine Art Association] in Prague, 24 March – 15 April 1923, cat. no. 8 under the title Broskve [Peaches]; The Work of Josef Čapek, House of Arts Brno, September – October 1960, cat. no. 88 under the title Zátiší [Still Life]; Painted Works by Josef Čapek, House of Arts Gottwaldov, 25 April – 13 June 1964, not included in the catalogue), inclusion in an inventory of Čapek’s artworks (P. Pečinková: Pracoval jsem mnoho, díl třetí: Malba [I Worked a Lot, Volume Three: Painting], Humpolec 2023, p. 545, cat. no. III/195), and its inclusion in Jaroslav Slavík’s working database under the number 280 with the title Zátiší (Still life). The painting’s first owner was Václav Nebeský, an art historian and art dealer in Paris. Assessed in consultation with Professor J. Zemina and PhDr. R. Michalová, PhD. The expert opinion of PhDr. P. Pečinková, CSc. is attached: “[...] The listed work is part of a set of oils from Čapek’s ‘humblest art’ creative phase, when he arrived at a distinct interpretation of Cubist influences, drawing inspiration from the work of Henri ‘Le Douanier’ Rousseau, the creators of signboards, and other untrained artists, known as ‘painters of the people.’ From 1920–1922 he often dealt with the motifs of the still life and attempted to combine this classic genre with a new artistic language. [...].”