Dating from very late in the artist’s career, this simple representation of a humble basket of apples is singled out by Roethlisberger and Loche as ‘La plus admirable nature morte de Liotard’. Like many of Liotard's late 'Natures mortes', it is drawn with even more directness and economy of means than the artist's earlier works, retaining an extraordinary level of observation and conveying an enigmatic singularity of representation. Although a few of Liotard's thirty or so still lifes and trompes-l’oeuil date from earlier in his career, the majority of these timeless and exquisite works were created in the later part of his life, when, as Roethlisberger and Loche have remarked, the demand for his portraiture declined.1
These intimate works were mostly executed between 1782 and 1786. As Roethisberger observed, although The Basket of Apples ‘conforms to the style of the others .. it is somewhat larger and surprises us by its total simplicity. The absence of any additional motifs and downplaying of shadows at once enhance the realism of the isolated fruit basket and remove it from our experience of everyday objects’.2
The Basket of Apples is slightly larger than life size. The subtlety in the execution, typical of Liotard’s acute observation, is enhanced by the unexpected position of the basket and the disregard for conventional spatial recession. Not centered, it reflects in its ‘géométrie rhomboïdale’ 3 the point of observation from which it was drawn, most certainly lower right. The suffused light falls from above, from the right side, creating a vivacity of nuances in the description and individual texture of the apples which in their plasticity contrast with the weaving of the open wicker basket. All differently oriented, the apples, elegantly piled up, are characterized by a sophisticated variety in the shades of colours: green, yellows and light brown, ultimately dappled with bright red. The same accuracy of execution is noticeable in the rendering of the wicker basket, the right side of which is closer to the viewer, and therefore slightly enlarged. The medium of pastel permits an enormous variety of delicately drawn tonalities, often applied in different stages. Apparently devoid of any symbolism, Roethlisberger and Loche dated this work close to 17864 and remarked: ‘La simplicité de la composition place cette oeuvre néanmoins plus près de 1786 que de 1782/83. Dans le context plus étendu, ce pastel prend sa place entre Meléndez et Courbet.’ 5 (‘The simplicity of the composition places this work closer to 1786 than to 1782/83. In the bigger picture, this pastel takes its place between Meléndez and Courbet).
The Basket of Apples is announced among the subjects to be executed by the aging artist, mentioned in a letter to his eldest son, Jean-Etienne, dated 24 September 1782.6 The same letter also witnesses the fact that the painter was asked by friends, who admired his works, to add his age when signing his works. In the 2002 Geneva Liotard exhibition catalogue, Cäsar Menz stressed that such a reference to the artist’s age was rather unusual in the eighteenth century, suggesting the artist's awareness of the passing of time: in the time-honoured vanitas tradition, the painter alludes to his own mortality, in the context of an image in which the subject, the fruit, is equally perishable.7 In her essay on Liotard’s still lifes in the Royal Academy exhibition catalogue, MaryAnne Stevens has also noted that Liotard thought rather highly of these late works, as is documented by the same letter to his son, in which he wrote that he 'considered these works to have greater freshness, vivacity and three-dimensionality than the still-life of the great Jan Van Huysum (1682-1749)'..., and also noted that he felt they displayed his current artistic prowess to advantage as compared with that he had shown fifty years ago.'8 Furthermore, such was his satisfaction with their quality that he announced, in the same letter, his intention to send two to Catherine the Great of Russia.9 Moreover, his daughter Marie Jeanne, in a letter from Geneva to her elder brother in Amsterdam, dated 10 September 1782, wrote: ‘Il s’occupe toujours mon très cher Papa il a peint depuis quelque temps des tableaux de fruits qui sont en vérité un chef d’oeuvre… Ils sont admiré de tout le monde nous sommes extrêmement contente de cella parce que ca lui a fait quitter la gravure qui lui faisait beaucoup mal aux yeux..’ (He is keeping himself busy my dear Father he has painted since some time some pictures of fruits which are truly masterpieces …and they are admired by everybody and we are extremely happy because this has resulted in him abandoning printmaking which is so bad for his eyes).10
Michel Faré, like Numa S. Trivas before him, wrote: ‘De tous les peintres de nature morte du XVIIIe siècle, Liotard est le plus sobre. Chardin, à ses côtés, nous paraît presque conventionnel. Il dépasse tous les peintres de son temps par des préoccupations plastiques auxquelles, un siècle plus tard, le nom de Cézanne est associé.’ ('Of all the painters of still lifes in the eighteenth century, Liotard is the most restrained. Beside him, Chardin seems almost conventional. Liotard surpasses all artists of his time in terms of the preoccupation with sculptural qualities with which, a century later, the name of Cézanne is associated').11
The association both with the works of Chardin, which Liotard greatly admired and could have seen while in Paris, and especially with those of Cézanne, seems poignant when considering some of Liotard’s works of this late period – not forgetting the equally significant parallels with Meléndez, mentioned above. These links are certainly of striking relevance in the case of the present still life, an unpretentious depiction of a simple basket of apples, arranged in a natural but elegant manner. The image emphasizes the beauty of an unassuming life experience. The vivacity of the strokes and the subtle modulation of colours demonstrate the artist’s ability, which has gone far beyond the pure imitation of nature: the freedom of execution and brilliant handling of light bear witness to the unparalleled sophistication and confidence in the pastel medium that Liotard’s long years of experience gave him in his later works.
Roethlisberger and Loche noted that the basket motif seen here appears earlier in Liotard’s work, in the portrait of Suzanne Curchod, but in that case made of white ceramic, rather than wicker.12 Previously, Roethlisberger had also pointed out that no similar basket appears in any other still life of the eighteenth century, also stressing the comparison to perhaps the most famous still-life of all time, the basket of fruits by Caravaggio, in the Ambrosiana, Milan (fig. 1).13
In its informality, this image becomes a testament to the artist’s acumen and desire for experimentation, which the aged master, his creativity still fertile, finds rewarding in its freedom. While the pastel captivates our eyes with its directness and simplicity, it is the result of a complex and extraordinary mind, whose artistic talent is unique. His extreme sensibility and directness is so telling and so inspiring. It would be more appropriate to label these extraordinary works as 'Natures vivantes' than 'Natures mortes'.
1. Roethlisberger and Loche, op. cit., 2008, vol. I, p. 668
2. Roethlisberger, op. cit., 1985, p. 117
3. Roethlisberger and Loche, op. cit., 2008, vol. I, p. 674
4. Loc. cit.; a pastel on parchment by Liotard, A still-life with, pears, an apple, plums and walnuts on a white glazed plate, now in a private collection, was sold in London, Sotheby's, 5 July 2017, lot 81. That was formerly in the same collection as the present pastel and did bear on the backing a pen and ink inscription by Liotard's son: Jean-Etienne Liotard: peinte par mon père à Begnins en 1786. JEL. See Roethlisberger and Loche, op. cit., 2008, vol. I, p. 668, no. 570, vol. II, reproduced fig. 773
5. Roethlisberger and Loche, op. cit., 2008, vol. I, p. 674
6. Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789) dans les collections des Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Genève, exhib. cat., Geneva, Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, 2002, p. 106 7.
7. Ibid., 108. The interpretation as a 'vanitas', is not, however, shared by Roethlisberger and Loche (op. cit., 2008, vol. I, p. 668)
8. Jean-Etienne Liotard, exhib. cat., op. cit., 2015, p. 1669
9. Ibid.
10. Roethlisberger and Loche, op. cit., 2008, vol. I, p. 667
11. M. Faré, La nature morte en France: son histoire et son evolution du XVIIe au XXe siècle, Geneva 1962, p. 172
12. Roethlisberger and Loche, op. cit., 2008, vol. I, p. 674; for an image of Suzanne Curchod (later Madame Jacques Necker), see, vol. II, fig. 540
13. Roethlisberger, op. cit., 1985, p. 117; see also J. M. Marquis, op. cit., p. XV