Still Life with Fish 1866

Curator: Frederic Bazille, an artist known for his contribution to Impressionism, created this oil on canvas titled "Still Life with Fish" in 1866. You can find it held in a Private Collection. Editor: Whoa, okay, morbid chic? My first impression is of cool detachment. I feel like I should be humming a solemn tune while contemplating the fleeting nature of…fish dinners. Curator: It’s interesting you pick up on detachment. Still lifes traditionally carried potent symbolic weight. Think back to 17th century Dutch still lifes – each object signified something about mortality or worldly pleasures. Do you feel that at play here, even beneath the surface? Editor: Beneath? No. What's more present than dead fish on display? Though you're right to say something feels notably…missing. Other still lifes tend to create this illusion of overflowing abundance, where nothing spoils. This just…is. Very plain, even. No opulent colors; rather desaturated hues give it an almost photographic realness. Like a scene you could simply encounter in a market, captured as a fleeting impression. Curator: Consider how fish feature across various mythologies, often as symbols of abundance, transformation, and the subconscious. Christianity employs the fish symbol quite heavily; what could this particular arrangement speak to? The one on top with gold, perhaps reflecting the prosperity, wealth, or higher order associations, the fish under could relate more mundane worldly considerations or human fallibility. Editor: Oh, interesting point about the religious context. That little basket behind—maybe alluding to the miracle of the loaves and fishes? But Bazille treats it with such an almost cold indifference that its sacred connotations evaporate! So the golden shimmer does create some dynamism. Its texture and hue—noticeable impasto here—offer something lively amid so much stark stillness. Bazille uses light in such a striking way. The eye of the fish itself looks illuminated, or, is that light catching death? Either way, fascinating… and a bit bleak? Curator: Or brutally honest, perhaps? Maybe he wanted to highlight this moment for all its lack of sentimentality and inherent, stark qualities: both aesthetically intriguing and emotionally neutral, it makes its appeal for observation on its terms only, neither demanding or forgiving anything of the observer. Editor: True! He presents us with existence—start to finish—minus any embellishments. Alright, I am now onboard. Thanks, fishy friend, for the existential prompt.