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Still-life Paintings For Sale
Style: Art Deco
Style: American Realist
Artichokes
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
Two artichokes lay beside two lemons in this academic still-life painting. Dark hues and low light create that old-renaissance feeling.
Edward Minoff Graduated with honors from NYU'...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Linen
White Lily, Photorealist Oil Painting on Canvas by Lowell Nesbitt
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Lowell Blair Nesbitt, American (1933 - 1993)
Title: White Lily
Year: 1982
Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed and dated verso
Size: 26 in. x 26 in. (66.04 cm x 66.04 cm)
Category
1970s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Italian Still Life, Early Painting by Philip Pearlstein 1940
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Philip Pearlstein, American (1924 - )
Title: Italian Still Life
Year: 1940
Medium: Oil on Board, signed
Size: 16 in. x 12 in. (40.64 cm x 30.48 cm)
Frame Size: 22 x 18 inches
Category
1940s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil
Hydrangea in Fall
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
An oil painting a Hydrangea in a vase on a table. Framed in a simple white, floating frame.
Maryann Lucas lives and works in Sag Harbor. She is primarily self-taught but has also r...
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Basketball #1
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist Comments
This is a close up painting of a basketball. The painting was completed entirely using an airbrush. Hundreds of templates were created by hand using mylar.
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Acrylic
Mt. Etna from Taormina
Located in New York, NY
Thomas Fransioli, born in 1906 in Seattle, Washington, trained as an architect at the University of Pennsylvania. He worked as an architect before his service in World War II. Largel...
Category
20th Century American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Golfball Closeup
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist Comments
This is a close up painting of a golf ball. This piece was painted entirely using an airbrush. Every dimple, highlight, shadow, mark was created using templat...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Acrylic
Tamalas Bay Evening / Boats on the Bay at sunset - peaceful
Located in Burlingame, CA
Boats at sunset depicted in this calm and peaceful oil painting — Tamales Bay Evening — from American Realist Willard Dixon. The canvas is 17 x 50 inches...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
When Life is Still / watermelon and cherries - Magic Realism
Located in Burlingame, CA
Still Life with Watermelon and Cherries - Magic Realism still life oil painting in neutral grey with white and red. Larger than life cherries and sliced ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Acrylic, Canvas
Catch n Carry
Located in Greenwich, CT
Still life painting of a basket
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Panel, Egg Tempera
The Oar Locks
By John Morfis
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
Painted from life in his connecticut studio, John Moris paints two metal oar locks. These tools are normally attached to the sides of a row-boat, and lock in the oars with which a sailor would row. Hanging fro a tiny metal nail, dangling from a small white thread, before an off-white, monochromatic backdrop.
Framed in a simple black frame, as pictured. Frame dimensions are 24 x 20 inches.
Painting dimensions are 19 x 15 inches.
John Morfis was born in Glen Cove, Long Island in 1976. His humble beginnings made pursuing a career in art difficult and paradoxically necessary. Fixated on making things aesthetically pleasing, John made an extreme departure from his family life when he chose to base his life on art. Surrounded by mechanics, welders, and otherwise trade workers John had a tough time expressing his interest in a world much more utilitarian and much less expressive and impractical.
With an extraordinary desire to be an artist and a grant awarded, John was able to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in painting from the University of Hartford in 1998. While there John studied oil painting under American realist Stephen Brown.
John’s first solo show took place in 2007 at the Ellen Traut Collection Gallery in Hartford, CT and was a near sell out. Since then John has had success up and down the northeastern coast of the United States working with various galleries and collectors. His work has also appeared in various group shows at the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Each painting, although a portrait of a tired hand...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil
Farm to Table
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
An oil painting of farm-fresh goods laid on a table with a plaid picnic-print tablecloth.
Maryann Lucas lives and works in Sag Harbor. She is primarily self-taught but has also received instruction and support from wonderful and generous members of the East End artistic community. Working exclusively in oils, Lucas sets out almost daily to create plein aire landscapes and seascapes. In her studio, she works directly from life and captures the beauty of natural light as it transforms ordinary objects into visual delights.
Lucas wants her work to celebrate all that is well with this world and brilliant in this life, despite its pockets of darkness.
For me, she says, I know I am in the Presence of something beautiful, when it steals my breath, silences my mind, pushes out everything else and draws me in. I trust That. I use That to guide my hands as I arrange a still life or scan a landscape to determine where to set down my easel. Ultimately, That is what drives me to paint.
Becoming evermore skilled as an oil painter is another of Lucas goals. To that end she remains teachable, finding it refreshing and vital for her own growth to paint with others. She has studied with favorite artists including Michael Klein...
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Great Pumpkin, Oil Painting
By Jesse Aldana
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist Comments
In this classically styled still life, Jesse uses the opportunity to ruminate on colors he more frequently employs in describing a sunset. Deeply dyed fabric,...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil
90˚ In The Shade
By Matt Condron
Located in Fairfield, CT
Having spent many years as a photographer, Matt Condron is trained to recognize the importance of a moment or the preciousness of a fleeting opportunity. He is captivated by the ide...
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Garden of Eden
Located in Fairfield, CT
Thompson's oil paintings of neon signage explore his appreciation for how these hand-made signs are built. This may be a result of the many years he spent as an equipment engineer in...
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Level B
By Matt Condron
Located in Fairfield, CT
Having spent many years as a photographer, Matt Condron is trained to recognize the importance of a moment or the preciousness of a fleeting opportunity. He is captivated by the ide...
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Vintage Coral Cyclamen
Located in Soquel, CA
Acrylic painting on illustration board of three pink cyclamen flowers and heart-shaped leaves on a blue background by Barbara Gibson (American, 20th Century). Artwork is presented in...
Category
1980s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Acrylic, Illustration Board, Pencil
Blue Notes
By Matt Condron
Located in Fairfield, CT
Having spent many years as a photographer, Matt Condron is trained to recognize the importance of a moment or the preciousness of a fleeting opportunity. He is captivated by the ide...
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
At the Clinton Station Diner, Oil Painting
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist Comments
The Clinton Station Diner is one of New Jersey's landmark diners. I was seated in this particular room that is actually a salvaged train dining car. I could n...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil
Summer Flowers with Lavender Bells
Located in Fairfield, CT
Realism as a style has basically remained unchanged since the Renaissance. Realism as a technique, however, has definitely been altered and heavily influenced by technology. Most art...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
Yellow Plug on Cedar Shake
By John Morfis
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
John Morfis was born in Glen Cove, Long Island in 1976. His humble beginnings made pursuing a career in art difficult and paradoxically necessary. Fixated on making things aesthetically pleasing, John made an extreme departure from his family life when he chose to base his life on art. Surrounded by mechanics, welders, and otherwise trade workers John had a tough time expressing his interest in a world much more utilitarian and much less expressive and impractical.
With an extraordinary desire to be an artist and a grant awarded, John was able to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in painting from the University of Hartford in 1998. While there John studied oil painting under American realist Stephen Brown.
John’s first solo show took place in 2007 at the Ellen Traut Collection Gallery in Hartford, CT and was a near sell out. Since then John has had success up and down the northeastern coast of the United States working with various galleries and collectors. His work has also appeared in various group shows at the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Each painting, although a portrait of a tired hand...
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil
Surprise / oil on canvas - 30 x 30 inches
By Mimi Jensen
Located in Burlingame, CA
Glorious and fun still life celebration where color in blue, green, pink and gold reigns. In excellent condition. Signed and titled by artist..
Mimi Jensen uses bold colors to depict theatrically lit objects. Her paintings invite speculation into possible metaphors – California Home+Design magazine
Ms. Jensen is a Still Life painter who is inspired by her ideas and observations. Jensen’s education and early work experience were eclectic – Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Speech Therapist, Technical Editor, and even an Airline Analyst to satisfy her desire to travel. Eventually she returned to graduate school to follow her dream of studying art. While still a graduate student in drawing and painting she was selected for her first commercial gallery show, which led to subsequent exhibitions and launched her professional career as a painter. She has exhibited widely in the U.S., has been featured in numerous publications – American Art Collector, California Home+Design, Fine Art Today, Professional Artist, Southwest Art, The Artist’s Magazine – and for the past 20 years she has been represented by galleries in San Francisco, Boston, Santa Fe, and other cities.
The painting is 30 x 30 inches...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Party / oil on canvas - 12 x 12 inches
By Mimi Jensen
Located in Burlingame, CA
Glorious and fun small still life celebration where color, in blue, green, pink and gold, reigns. In excellent condition. Signed and titled by artist..
Mimi Jensen uses bold colors to depict theatrically lit objects. Her paintings invite speculation into possible metaphors – California Home+Design magazine
Ms. Jensen is a Still Life painter who is inspired by her ideas and observations. Jensen’s education and early work experience were eclectic – Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Speech Therapist, Technical Editor, and even an Airline Analyst to satisfy her desire to travel. Eventually she returned to graduate school to follow her dream of studying art. While still a graduate student in drawing and painting she was selected for her first commercial gallery show, which led to subsequent exhibitions and launched her professional career as a painter. She has exhibited widely in the U.S., has been featured in numerous publications – American Art Collector, California Home+Design, Fine Art Today, Professional Artist, Southwest Art, The Artist’s Magazine – and for the past 20 years she has been represented by galleries in San Francisco, Boston, Santa Fe, and other cities.
The painting is 12 x 12...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Tahoe Evening, Winter
Located in Burlingame, CA
People enjoying the setting sun on a frozen Lake at Tahoe, with cascading evening light and majestic alpine mountain ridge in the distance. Willard Dixon is one of our finest American contemporary realist painters, who has painted Northern California coastal landscapes for over 35 years. His work captures the undeniable beauty of the West with its grand and humble spirit. Dixon’s work can be found in numerous distinctive private and public collections, as well as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Oakland Museum of California.
Tahoe Evening I is 36 x 54 inches. The work of art comes to you framed in a light wood floater frame and is ready to hang and enjoy for years to come. Artist signed and dated. Condition is excellent.
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Oakland Museum
The Utah Museum of Fine Art
The San Francisco Art Commission
AMA Headquarters, washington, D.C.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co., S.F. CA.
Transamerica Headquarters,S.F., CA.
San Francisco International Airport
IBM Corporation, San Jose, CA.
Pacific Bell
SELECTED PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Mr. Harrison Ford
Mr. Peter Duchin
Ms. Linda Ronstadt
Ms Faye Dunaway
Mr. Peter Morton
Mrs. H.J. Heinze
Mr Rupert Lowenstein
Mr. Chappy Morris
Mr. Griffen Dunne
Margy Boyd
Caroline Graham
Mr. Richard Baker
Ms. Sabrina Guinness
Mr. Peter Asher
Mr. Earl McGrath
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1999 Art and Architecture, San Francisco Civic Center Complex Catalogue
1999 What Good is Art? William T. Wiley & Mary Hull Webster& 100 Artists, StudioDot Wiz
1998 The Artist and the American Landscape, John Driscoll, First Glance Books
1996 Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas Alan Gussow, Gerald Peters Gallery
1995 Facing eden: 100 years of Landscape Art in the Bay Area, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and University of California Press
1993 Paintings of California , Arnold Skolnick...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Montauk
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
Awards
2013 Loring W. Coleman Award for Watercolor/ Allied Artists of America, 100th Annual Exhibition at the National Arts Club
2011 Mary Bryan Memorial Medal / Allied Artis...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Egg Tempera
Yesterday and Today
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist Comments
This is another in a series of paintings I have executed over the years exploring ponds, waterlilies, koi and goldfish. The lilies on my pond tend to flower f...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil
Caramel Ice Cream Cup, Framed
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by the seller, NY & LA -- I love junk food. Who doesn’t? In my latest series of paintings, I am presenting snippets of childhood.. images that I like to look at. P...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Panel, Oil
James McCracken Oil on Board
Located in San Francisco, CA
This oil on board is by James McCracken (1875-1967). It is a lush, exotic composition, depicting a Buddha statue atop a lotus flower. There are other flowers in the background as wel...
Category
1940s Art Deco Still-life Paintings
Materials
Board, Oil
Kitchen Basics
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
Maryann Lucas lives and works in Sag Harbor. She is primarily self-taught but has also received instruction and support from wonderful and generous members of the East End artistic c...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
"Meriden Cutlery 1870" contemporary realist painting antique tool Trompe L'oeil
By John Morfis
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
John Morfis was born in Glen Cove, Long Island in 1976. His humble beginnings made pursuing a career in art difficult and paradoxically necessary. Fixated on making things aesthetica...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Hat and Bird's Nests
Located in Greenwich, CT
Still life painting of a hat and bird's nests
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
The Dinner Table
By Danny Heller
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- I paint the reality of the Southern California environment: how structures once revered for their groundbreaking ideas in design and...
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Striking Indian aluminum kettle, in black, red, white; india art Shuvaprasanna
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
An unique and interesting collective by Master Indian Artist Shuvaprasanna .( signature on the cap of the kettle )
Painted on the famous Indian Aluminum Kettle; there cant be anythi...
Category
2010s Art Deco Still-life Paintings
Materials
Acrylic
Apricots
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA --Mooers writes of his work, “My paintings begin with a serious sense of play, both in the staging and the creating of the compositions...
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Panel, Oil
"Elegant Still Life of Yellow and Blue Cups on Polka Dots"
Located in Wellesley, MA
"Elegant Still Life of Yellow and Blue Cups on Polka Dots"
Olga Antonova’s subject is compositions of extraordinarily elegant and beautiful cups, plates, teapots, and dishes, but th...
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Cotton Canvas
A Good Day For A Parade II
Located in Fairfield, CT
My paintings begin with a serious sense of play, both in the staging and the creating of the compositions. It is at this beginning stage that I operate under the Dadaist dictate that...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Panel, Oil
Rug and Hat
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original acrylic on panel by American female artist Catherine Koenig. This stunning work created in 1980 is part of the Draw Near exhibition on view at Benjaman Gallery
Category
1980s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Panel, Acrylic
Yellow Rose, Monumental Painting by Lowell Nesbitt
Located in Long Island City, NY
An oil painting by Lowell Nesbitt from 1973. A very large scale, hyper-realist painting of a rose in black background.
Artist: Lowell Blair Nesb...
Category
1970s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Strawberry Ice Cream Cup, Framed
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by the seller, NY & LA -- I love junk food. Who doesn’t? In my latest series of paintings, I am presenting snippets of childhood.. images that I like to look at. P...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Panel, Oil
Lillium Umbellatum (Candlestick Lily)
By John Zak
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: John Zak
Title: Lillium Umbellatum (Candlestick Lily)
Year: 1974
Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed l.r.
Size 72 x 48 in. (182.88 x 121.92 cm)
Category
1970s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil
Chocolate Ice Cream Cup, Framed
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by the seller, NY & LA -- I love junk food. Who doesn’t? In my latest series of paintings, I am presenting snippets of childhood.. images that I like to look at. P...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Panel, Oil
Ten Lemons on Blue
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Lowell Blair Nesbitt, American (1933 - 1993)
Title: Ten Lemons on Blue
Year: 1978
Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed and dated verso
Size: 65 in. x 90 in. (165.1 cm x 228.6 cm)
Category
1970s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil
Wildflower Composition (California Poppy#14)
By James Oliver
Located in Fairfield, CT
In organizing these paintings, I combine aspects from multiple sources-drawings, reference photographs, both personal and others, and memories of events or places where crowds gather...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Panel, Casein
"Elegant Still Life of Yellow Bottle and Teapot, and Polka Dot Cup"
Located in Wellesley, MA
"Elegant Still Life of Yellow Bottle and Teapot, and Polka Dot Cup"
Olga Antonova’s subject is compositions of extraordinarily elegant and beautiful cu...
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
"Elegant Still Life of Umbrella with Golden Polka Dots"
Located in Wellesley, MA
"Elegant Still Life of Umbrella with Golden Polka Dots"
Olga Antonova’s subject is compositions of extraordinarily elegant and beautiful cups, plates, teapots, and dishes, but there...
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Nest
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA --Born in 1970, Derek Buckner at present lives in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife and their two sons. The artist graduated from LaGuardia H...
Category
2010s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Fireboat with Flag
By Kim Frohsin
Located in Burlingame, CA
A rare and very early oil and wax medium painting from American artist, Kim Frohisn, who is generally associated with the West Coast's Bay Area Figurative movement, started by Elmer ...
Category
20th Century American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil, Wax, Canvas
Cups and Book
By Russ Havard
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NY & LA --The process of endless building and reconfiguring transcends the mere physical and encompasses the spiritual and symbolic. The scars a...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Still Life with Grapes, Pears, and Walnuts
Located in Boston, MA
Anne Lyman Powers, American (b.1922), Still Life with Grapes, Pears, and Walnuts, 1961. Signed and dated upper right: "Powers '61".
Anne Lyman Powers was born in 1922, and raised in...
Category
1960s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil
Wildflower Composition (California Poppy#10)
By James Oliver
Located in Fairfield, CT
In organizing these paintings, I combine aspects from multiple sources-drawings, reference photographs, both personal and others, and memories of events or places where crowds gather...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Panel, Casein
NEXUS / realism hyperreal acrylic painting - home, pink house
By Lynette Cook
Located in Burlingame, CA
Painting in canvas is 24 x 18 inches. Beautifully framed in a contemporary pale hardwood floater frame with an outside dimension of 25 x 19 inches. Lynette Cook’s shadow-centric sce...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
Wildflower Composition (California Poppy#12)
By James Oliver
Located in Fairfield, CT
In organizing these paintings, I combine aspects from multiple sources-drawings, reference photographs, both personal and others, and memories of events or places where crowds gather...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Panel, Casein
Wildflower Composition (California Poppy#15)
By James Oliver
Located in Fairfield, CT
In organizing these paintings, I combine aspects from multiple sources-drawings, reference photographs, both personal and others, and memories of events or places where crowds gather...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Panel, Casein
Orange Cupcake (Dad's Favorite), Framed
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- GINA MINICHINO
Artist Statement
I love junk food. Who doesn’t? In my latest series of paintings, I am presenting snippets of c...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Panel, Oil
#1714 To Go
Located in Fairfield, CT
This work is about what I do while I write letters and think about all these urgent, global concerns and feel frustrated and powerless. I drink coffee. I drink a lot of coffee. It’s...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
PVC, Oil, Mylar
Flowers
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Gladys Rockmore Davis, American (1901 - 1967)
Title: Flowers
Year: circa 1940
Medium: Oil on Canvas, Signed l.r.
Size: 24 x 20 inches
Frame: 33 x 29 inches
Category
1940s American Realist Still-life Paintings
Materials
Oil
Shop Still-Life Paintings on 1stDibs
Still-life paintings work as part of the decor in nearly every type of space.
Still-life art, which includes work produced in media such as painting, photography, video and more, is a popular genre in Western art. However, the depiction of still life in color goes back to Ancient Egypt, where paintings on the interior walls of tombs portrayed the objects — such as food — that a person would take into the afterlife. Ancient Greek and Roman mosaics and pottery also often depicted food. Indeed, still-life paintings frequently feature food, flowers or man-made objects. By definition, still-life art represents anything that is considered inanimate.
During the Middle Ages, the still life genre was adapted by artists who illustrated religious manuscripts. A common theme of these paintings is the reminder that life is fleeting. This is especially true of vanitas, a kind of still life with roots in the Netherlands during the 17th century, which was built on themes such as death and decay and featured skulls and objects such as rotten fruit. In northern Europe during the 1600s, painters consulted botanical texts to accurately depict the flowers and plants that were the subject of their work.
Leonardo da Vinci’s penchant for observing phenomena in nature and filling notebooks with drawings and notes helped him improve as an artist of still-life paintings. Vincent van Gogh, an artist who made a couple of the most expensive paintings ever sold, carried out rich experiments with color over the course of painting hundreds of still lifes, and we can argue that Campbell’s Soup Cans (1961–62) by Andy Warhol counts as still-life art.
While early examples were primarily figurative, you can find still lifes that belong to different schools and styles of painting, such as Cubism, Impressionism and contemporary art.
As part of the wall decor in your living room, dining room or elsewhere, a still-life painting can look sophisticated alongside your well-curated decorative objects and can help set the mood in a space.
When shopping for a still-life painting, think about how it makes you feel and how the artist chose to represent its subject. When buying any art for your home, choose pieces that you connect with. If you’re shopping online, read the description of the work to learn about the artist and check the price and shipping information. Make sure that the works you choose complement or relate to your overall theme and furniture style. Artwork can either fit into your room’s color scheme or serve as an accent piece. Introduce new textures to a space by choosing an oil still-life painting.
On 1stDibs, find a collection of still-life paintings in a wide range of styles and subject matter.