Still Life with Flowers and Peaches
Artist: Victoria DuBourg (French, 1840 - 1926)
Date: 1874
Dimensions:
17 × 19 3/4 in. (43.2 × 50.2 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Place of Origin: France
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 2021.12
Label Text:Laid out in three roughly pyramidal compositions, two piles of ripe peaches (one in a wicker basket) interlaced with leaves and one small bouquet of white roses are arranged on a wooden table set against a dark background. The three piles themselves form a pyramid together.
Artist Victoria Dubourg specialized in still life images, an interest she shared with fellow artist Henri Fantin-Latour, who would become her husband (they met at the Louvre while copying the same painting by Renaissance artist Antonio da Correggio). By the second half of the 19th century, women artists in Paris had more opportunities to make a living as an artist, with private art schools opening for women and even a women artists’ union. Dubourg also regularly exhibited her work at both the Paris Salon (the annual state-sanctioned art show) and the Royal Academy of Arts in London and was awarded the French order of merit, the Legion of Honor, in 1920. However, Parisian women artists still faced tremendous challenges, with many of their fellow male artists (even, at times, Dubourg’s own husband) often dismissing their talent.
Artist Victoria Dubourg specialized in still life images, an interest she shared with fellow artist Henri Fantin-Latour, who would become her husband (they met at the Louvre while copying the same painting by Renaissance artist Antonio da Correggio). By the second half of the 19th century, women artists in Paris had more opportunities to make a living as an artist, with private art schools opening for women and even a women artists’ union. Dubourg also regularly exhibited her work at both the Paris Salon (the annual state-sanctioned art show) and the Royal Academy of Arts in London and was awarded the French order of merit, the Legion of Honor, in 1920. However, Parisian women artists still faced tremendous challenges, with many of their fellow male artists (even, at times, Dubourg’s own husband) often dismissing their talent.
DescriptionOn a wooden table appear three pyramidal-shaped motifs – in the center, a woven basket of peaches separated from one another by green leaves; at left, a cluster of peaches, again with leaves interspersed; and at right, white flowers with greenery.
On view