Still Life

Still life, the depiction of inanimate objects such as fruit, vegetables, dead game and household objects, became a popular subject for watercolour artists. Still lives appealed to patrons for the simplicity of their subject matter, and were admired above all for the skill of the artist.

'Rabbits' by John Sherrin is not strictly speaking a 'still life'. But Sherrin has treated the live rabbits as static objects, inviting us to view them closely, to wonder at the fineness of the brushwork delineating every hair of the rabbit, rather than stepping back to admire an overall concept and composition.

In order to achieve such detail, as well as the high colour typical of Victorian still lives, watercolour painters developed new techniques which were often disapproved of by contemporaries. The critic John Ruskin noted that Sherrin's teacher, William Henry Hunt, could not have obtained his colours by using direct washes of pigment - no blue by itself could render the rich colour of, for example, a violet or a plum.

Indeed, Hunt worked on a white ground of pigment, overlaying it with broken colour, with detached and sharply defined touches and with patches of pure colour. We can see this in 'Grapes, a Melon and Plums' , which is typical of Hunt's still life style. Mounted and framed in gold these images were amazingly vibrant, complimenting and enhancing the rich, cluttered Victorian interior.

Many artists such as Hunt and Sherrin specialised in still life. For others, still life was simply part of a repertoire of subjects by which an artist could make a living. Benjamin Richard Green painted figure and architectural subjects, portraits, landscapes and interiors, as well as still lives such as 'Still Life with Vases' and 'Still Life with Statuette and Jar' .

For other artists, still life presented an interesting technical challenge. Peter De Wint was a renowned landscape painter specialising in views in his native Lincolnshire. De Wint's 'Still Life. A Wicker Basket containing a Bottle and two Brown Vessels' and 'Still Life. A Barrel, Jug, Bottle, Basin etc on a Table' , are unusual in his work.

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