Still Life with Books and Candle 1890

Curator: I see such intimacy in this still life! The kind you stumble upon when peeking into a private moment. It’s cozy, like watching the end of an evening unfold. Editor: It certainly exudes a hushed ambiance, doesn't it? Henri Matisse, though we know him primarily for his vibrant Fauvist period, painted "Still Life with Books and Candle" around 1890. Its construction recalls those melancholic Dutch vanitas paintings, meditations on mortality through mundane objects. Curator: Vanitas, eh? So you’re saying that wobbly candle and stack of aging books isn’t just inviting me in for a bedtime story? I thought it smelled like warm wax and quiet anticipation! Editor: (chuckles) Maybe it's both! That single candle, beginning to melt, paired with books suggesting knowledge, all rest on a newspaper. We’re looking at temporal symbols here, a fleeting moment captured. Curator: Yes, captured. It feels very caught in time. Those thick impasto strokes make it seem almost tactile, like you could reach out and smudge the painting’s surface with your finger. Everything about the painting pulls you into the intimate space it holds. Editor: And it invites us to examine class and knowledge, doesn’t it? Newspapers disseminating information and literature as privilege – who has the time to sit and read, under candlelight no less? It speaks volumes. Curator: Indeed. The painting holds these secrets close; a whole story almost reluctant to reveal itself! It's like overhearing a conversation in low whispers… mysterious and tantalizing! It's a different language he is trying to use, this intimacy is palpable, a world to embrace by the sole use of painting. Editor: Exactly! It gives the still life genre renewed depth. Considering the sociopolitical changes happening in France at that time, you can almost read it as a comment on fading intellectual traditions amidst the rise of modern society. It also demonstrates a fascinating early chapter in the career of one of modern art’s major figures. Curator: And yet… as much as these contexts might inform my understanding of the piece, for me, at its core, “Still Life with Books and Candle” is a study of presence. Editor: Yes, it holds space with undeniable stillness!