Antique Pair Large Still Life Oil Paintings Continental School 19th C 131x107cm

This is a magnificent monumental pair of antique oil on canvas Continental School still-life paintings, each initialled by the artist A M, in stunning gilt and gesso frames, dating from the late 19th century.

This splendid pair feature beautiful bouquets of flowers.

This iconic style of still life was originally made popular by the Dutch old masters in the 17th century when many of the flowers depicted were considered highly exotic and precious.

They are housed in their magnificent gilt gesso frames which are decorated with superb foliate decoration.

Add these splendid antique paintings to a very special wall in your home.

Provenance:

Dunkirk Manor- see photo

Condition:

In excellent condition the paintings and frames having been beautifully cleaned in our workshops, please see photos for confirmation.

Dimensions in cm:

Height 131 cm x Width 107 cm x Depth 9 cm - Frame

Height 103 cm x Width 79 cm - Canvas

Dimensions in inches:

Height 4 foot, 4 inches x Width 3 foot, 6 inches x Depth 3 inches - Frame

Height 3 foot, 5 inches x Width 2 foot, 7 inches - Canvas

Dunkirk Manor

“The interiors at Dunkirk Manor were the culmination of a lifetime of collecting which seamlessly blended styles, cultures and textures across several centuries and reflected a unique personal style. The overall effect was atmospheric and theatrical, full of colour and eye-catching details, a breath of fresh air in a world full of dull and homogeneous interiors. It is now time for this collection, that has given so much joy, to be dispersed and go on to enhance other collections and interiors

A still life

is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural food, flowers, dead animals, plants, or man-made drinking glasses, books, vases, jewelry.

With origins in the Middle Ages and Ancient Graeco-Roman art, still-life painting emerged as a distinct genre and professional specialisation in Western painting by the late 16th century, and has remained significant since then. A still life form gives the artist more freedom in the arrangement of elements within a composition than do paintings of other types of subjects such as landscape or portraiture.

Still life, as a particular genre, began with Netherlandish painting of the 16th and 17th centuries. Early still-life paintings, particularly before 1700, often contained religious and allegorical symbolism relating to the objects depicted. Some modern still life work breaks the two dimensional barrier and employs three dimensional mixed media, and uses found objects, photography, computer graphics, as well as video and sound.

The term includes the painting of dead animals, especially game. Live ones are considered animal art, although in practice they were often painted from dead models. The still life category also shares commonalities with zoological and especially botanical illustration, where there has been considerable overlap among artists.

Generally a still life includes a fully depicted background, and puts aesthetic rather than illustrative concerns as primary.

Our reference: A4058