Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: Abstract Vegetable Still Life with Squash Melon and Greens Gouache
Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021)
Gouache on artist paper, unframed
Size: 19.75 x 24.25 inches (height x width)
Provenance: Artists estate, France
Condition: Good overall with light edge wear and small handling marks consistent with age. There are small tears where staples have been removed from the corners of the piece.
Description:
This vivid modernist still life by Guy Nicod presents an energetic arrangement of vegetables and sliced produce, rendered in his distinctive abstract gouache style. Across the composition, curved orange and yellow forms suggest squash and melon halves, their seeds and interiors picked out in warm tones that glow against passages of cool grey and blue. Rich greens appear as broccoli heads, leafy herbs, and courgette-like shapes, adding texture and a sense of freshness to the scene.
Rather than depicting the kitchen table in a strictly realistic way, Nicod breaks the still life into angular planes and overlapping colour fields. White and pale grey areas imply folded cloth or a table covering, while blocks of magenta, red, and deep purple hint at chopping boards, tabletops, or background textiles. The produce appears both recognisable and abstract, inviting the viewer to move between reading the vegetables as real objects and appreciating them as interlocking shapes of colour.
Typical of mid-century French modernism, the painting balances spontaneity with careful structure. Nicod’s gouache application creates a velvety opacity, allowing him to layer bright citrus yellows over earthy underpainting, and to carve out highlights that give the vegetables volume. Ideal for collectors interested in food and kitchen still lifes, vegetable paintings...
Category
Mid-20th Century Modern Art by Medium: Gouache