François Bonvin

Largely confined indoors by illness, Bonvin focused almost exclusively on intimate still lives of domestic objects in the last years of his career. This small still life is a celebration of materials and making centered on correspondence with an air of privacy if not secrecy: sheets of paper, a block of wax, a wooden-handled seal, and the still smoking candle whose heat helps bind the various elements together. The recently extinguished flame--a familiar motif from vanitas still life paintings--suggests the physical presence of an unseen figure and marks a particular moment in time: a poignant reminder of the fleeting nature of life and by contrast the lasting power of the written word.