작품 상세

PAUL DORIVAL , GRENOBLE, 1604 – GRENOBLE, 1684 Still life with a basket of grapes Oil on canvas 80 x 115 cm Beautiful bunches of grapes, still with their leaves, generously overflow from an openwork wicker basket. Between these bunches, other branches loaded with different varieties of plums emerge, as well as peaches and a few rare cherries... Some of these fruits, fallen from the basket, rest in the foreground on the table. Finally, among this profusion, we can see a bird feasting on grapes at the top of the basket. The branches occupy a privileged place here, just like the fruit, and attest to the freshness of this harvest. The realism with which Dorival depicts these fruits gives this 'still life' a special presence, far from being merely decorative. In particular, the painter has taken care to bring together fruits from the same season, showing here an intention that is more realistic than symbolic. However, these fruits undeniably evoke Christian values, the cherries being considered as the fruits of paradise, while the peaches and plums embody the forbidden fruit. Finally, the grape symbolises redemption. The grape dominates the composition, emerging from the darkness in the background. The bird that emerges, with its partly black plumage, takes on a negative connotation by attacking the sacred fruit. The Eucharistic value of the grape is evident here and testifies to the underlying religious value of this still life. Paul Dorival (1604-1684) was a French painter, active in Grenoble. He was particularly interested in religious subjects, and unfortunately we have little information about his biography. Nevertheless, his production of still lifes places him in the wake of his contemporary Isaac Soreau, who trained with Jacob van Hulsdonck. Even if we are unaware of any contact with these painters or their works, Dorival's still lifes are part of the great Dutch tradition, in which the models created by Ambrosius Bosschaert and then Balthasar Van der Ast dominate. Their compositions of fruit on a neutral background, more or less animated by the presence of insects or birds, renewed the genre. Their hidden symbolism, religious or moral, made them very popular subjects in the 17th century, particularly in the Protestant Netherlands, which favoured vanities that were charged with delivering a spiritual message beyond mere visual pleasure. Provenance: Mestrallet Collection, Paris, circa 1952; Maurice Segoura Collection, Paris, 2000. Work reproduced in La Nature morte en France, M. Faré, t. II, Geneva, 1962, fig. 130 (signed on the back); Petits maîtres de la Nature Morte en France, C. benedict, in L'oeil, n° 91-92, July-August 1962, pp. 40 and 44; Le Grand siècle de la nature morte en France. Le XVIIème siècle, M. Faré, Fribourg - Paris, 1947, pp. 144 and 145 (signed and dated 1660 on the back); Thee French Painters of the Seventeenth Century, Ch. Wright, Boston, 1985, p. 177 (signed and dated 1660 on the back of the original canvas); D'après nature. La Nature morte en France au XVIIème siècle, C. Salvi, Tournai, 2000, pp. 76-77, (signed and dated 1660 on the back); La Nature morte en France au XVIIème siècle, E. Coatalem, Paris, 2017, pp. 150-151, (signed and dated 1660 on the back). Certificate: René Millet Expertise