Fernando Botero(b. 1932)

Private Collection, New York
Galerie Veranneman, Brussels
Acquired from the above circa 1970 

Macon, Georgia, Mercer University, Inflated Images, January 6-27, 1969 (Traveling exhibition organized by curator Betsy Jones of the Museum of Modern Art, New York) 

This large work is well stretched, although the canvas has relaxed slightly in the corners. It does not seem to have been cleaned. There are a couple of dark spots on the surface on the edge of the table in the center of the left side, and another in the gray wall in the corner on the left side. There is one tiny paint loss in the lower left corner. The work is in original condition. No retouches are visible under ultraviolet light. The only areas of fluorescence are the drips of non-original matter on the far left side of the wall. (This condition report has been provided courtesy of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.)
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Fernando Botero’s still life paintings are the body of works most rooted in the artistic tradition of the genre. The robust and sensually-shaped characters, animals, fruits and objects that populate his fantastic scenes of everyday moments are based on the Old Master paintings he eagerly studied firsthand as a young art student in Europe during the 1950s. His encounters with the masterworks of Giotto, Michelangelo and Piero della Francesca in Italy and with the paintings of Sanchez-Cotán and Velázquez in Spain, among many others,  informed his own reinterpretations as seen in his paintings produced during the late 1950s. When asked in an interview “what is your relationship to art history?” Botero’s response was confident and simple: “A great one. Sometimes I do versions of the masterpieces just to learn.” [1] Color palette, brushstroke, light, compositional arrangement, the volume of forms, Botero studied and experimented with this technical “vocabulary” of the masters while formulating his own artistic style. By the mid-1960s the identifiable, signature “Botero” aesthetic had fully evolved: whimsical, joyful and humorous views of everyday Colombia that maintained visual fragments of art history.

The present work, Still Life with Hot Soup (1968), is a key example of Botero’s masterful ability of paying homage to the centuries-long tradition of still life painting while reflecting “the colossal, comic, critical, candid and documentary traits as the rest of his work.” [2] Particularly influenced by the 17^th Century Dutch masters Jan Van Eyck and Jan Davidszoon de Heem (See Fig. 1), drawn curtains on either side of the painting dramatically reveal a comforting bowl of soup waiting in a room aglow with warm hues of pinks, greens and yellows. This theatrical introduction makes us feel both as peering voyeurs and as invited dinner guests.  Just as the 17^th Century masters used the still life for didactic purposes, so too does Botero use this as a moment of social commentary:  the humble soup is triumphantly displayed and served in a porcelain terrine, a food typically prepared for the general masses is dramatically presented as a luxurious dish reserved for the aristocratic class.  The elements of most interest, however, are the small details Botero intentionally incorporates into the scene which create small moments of intimacy within the greater composition. A playful cat behind the table awaits his dining companion; a group of swarming flies add an eagerness to tasting the first spoonful of soup; the puff of volcanic smoke wafting from the bowl recalls memories of the volcanoes from Botero’s native Colombia; small roses on the table and intricately patterned on the terrine allude to a much more romantic and tender moment. 

[1]Germán Arciniegas, Fernando Botero, New York, 1977, p. 52

[2] Edward J. Sullivan and Jean-Marie Tasset, Fernando Botero, Monograph & Catalogue Raisonné, Paintings 1975-1990, New York, 2000, p. 28