147. Still Life with Books and White Chrysanthemums [the 20s]

Still life represents a recurrent theme in his creation, and its message is usually encoded in more or less conventional combinations of objects. Pallady creates an intimist painting, inspired by the everyday, revealing himself to the public. He builds true pictorial poems in which the subjects are decoded harmoniously through rhythms and colours. Whether they are candlesticks with flowers, gifts, tableware, newspapers or books; or even take the usual form of its props: glasses or the cane, Pallady's subjects are most often inspired by immediate reality. In the artist's works, the incisive line of the drawing takes precedence. The importance of the graphic duct is taken from Degas. He used to constantly reiterate the primacy of form over brushstrokes and chromatics. The perfect master of composition, Pallady excels in ordering the subjects that make up his still lifes. Usually, the books that crown the tables of his compositions make references to volumes that form the painter's literary core: Baudelaire, Proust or Nietzsche. We can therefore translate the literary, poetic or philosophical rhythms of his creation into the translation of the meanings of universal masterpieces. This time, however, we no longer receive precise indications regarding the titles of the volumes next to the vase with white chrysanthemums. The chromatic choices and the lines through which the artist makes references to traditional Romanian patterns reside both on the surface of the tray placed on the table and in the body of the vase with flowers. In addition to literature, Pallady also found inspiration in music, so that his works were deeply influenced by the solemnity that the artist took from Beethoven's scores. We can confirm, thus, the fact that Pallady ingeniously rendered the beauty of forms that generally appear meaningless and excelled at encoding symbols in most of his canvases.

References

ȘORBAN, Raoul, 'Theodor Pallady', Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1975. CEBUC, Alexandru, 'Pallady', Monitorul Oficial R. A. Publishing House, Bucharest, 2008. 'Desene de Theodor Pallady din Colecția Muzeului Țării Crișurilor' ('Drawings by Theodor Pallady from the Criș Country Museum Collection'), in 'Biharea', 1980, pp. 291-322. Florin Rogneanu, 'Theodor Pallady și tentația absolutului' ('Theodor Pallady and the Temptation of the Absolute'), in 'Oltenia. Studii și comunicări' ('Oltenia. Studies and communications'), no. V-VI, 1986, pp. 205-209.

Dimensions

width 38 cm, height 46 cm, custom 46 × 38 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed right side, in black, 'Pallady'

Dating

the 20s

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