Still Life with Pears by Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté

Provenance:
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal
Private Collection

Exhibited:
“Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté”, Retrospective Exhibition, Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal, 13-27 October 2018, no. 28

In his still lifes, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté was primarily interested in exploring the duality between the ideal representation of everyday subjects and the affirmation of the art of painting. The painterly qualities of his works reflect his experiments in both style and composition, which he undertook in the early 1890s as a promising young artist, like so many of his French-Canadian contemporaries who made the pilgrimage to Paris to further their artistic training.

Presenting a vibrant arrangement of squat, round pears set on a ledge against a sombre background, Suzor-Coté achieved the illusion of ripe fruits by juxtaposing yellow tones with a blush of orange and rendering the texture of wrinkled skin through freely applied brush strokes. As in many other paintings of the period, the artist scraped the pictorial layer to create texture and depth in the background before using his palette knife to trace the distinctive contours of the pears. While the illusion is mesmerizing from a distance, upon closer inspection, the paint takes on a life of its own. The viewer’s gaze finds itself inevitably drawn to the pearly white cut pieces at the right. It evokes the buttery texture and flavour of a freshly harvested fruit as if it had just recently been plucked from the leafy branch leaning against the ledge.

While Suzor-Coté’s still lifes, ranging from trophy game to floral arrangements, offer faithfully replicated inanimate objects, they also appeal to the viewer’s senses beyond sight, inviting contemplation through sensory perception. Ultimately, by adopting an intense palette of colours and rich textures, the artist emphasizes the ability of art to give the illusion of reality, thus breathing life within simple and often overlooked subjects.