Still Life; Fish 1908

Curator: Immediately, I feel this melancholic stillness, a silent tableau. It is reminiscent of a Dutch Master’s touch—so rich, yet… subdued. Editor: This piece, titled "Still Life; Fish," dates from 1908, and it is the creation of the American artist, William Merritt Chase. Notice the traditional oil medium lends itself well to the atmospheric qualities here. Curator: Atmospheric is the word! That murky backdrop. See how Chase directs the focus? Almost a stage play, with the fish as lead actors on a vaguely emerald stage. What are they thinking, I wonder? Editor: Or, perhaps, what were they feeling, since the representation gestures toward Realism, despite that touch of the theatrical you've detected. Notice the stark compositional choice of placing the cool, silvery bodies of the fish against warmer tones such as the red tomato. How might such contrast signify more abstract concerns? Curator: Intriguing! So, you mean the colors become characters themselves? Playing off one another. Maybe that little red fruit on the platter speaks of life, or temptation—a visual Adam and Eve. Editor: Could be. Chase was, if we recall, an important figure in the American Impressionist movement. So, the rendering of textures, the reflective glisten on the fish scales, and the near obscurity of objects toward the upper corners could exemplify his style of "studied spontaneity" while flirting with Impressionistic aesthetics. Curator: True! One forgets Chase's bravura technique observing that glaze of shadow that enfolds all within a feeling of contemplative—dare I say it?—despair. So strange how, rendered by paint, dead fish provoke so much… living emotion. Editor: It’s in that contrast, I think—between the tangible, tactile presentation and the symbolic implications, the invitation for imaginative speculation, the sheer… artfulness. Thanks to the oil, the moment almost pulses with painterly tension. Curator: Well put! From silent aquatic actors on a gloomy stage, to emblems of life’s inherent contrasts and the bittersweet awareness of such. Marvelous, indeed!