The phrase “Still Life” comes from a dutch word “Stilleven”. This phrase became popular in the 16th century because during this time, it started to become recognised as a genre of painting. Though, the actual painting style was being used by artists for much longer before. Still Life is a genre that consists of using non-living objects, such as flowers and fruits to show meaning within the image. These meanings can be things such as showing power or wealth, by doing things such as changing the types of flowers or fruits being used. Vanita is another style of Still Life. Vanitas typically show something to do with mortality or death, usually through the use of objects like skulls to achieve this.

The image above is a painting by Sir Nathaniel Bacon. He was a British painter. He created this painting toward the end of his life during the 1620s, when this kind of genre was just really gaining popularity. The image above shows lots of different fruits and vegetables. These were all grown in England at the time, but were not all within season at the time of the image. This creates an idea of wealth because it means they are able to get these items imported during times of the year when they don’t grow in England. The idea of wealth can lead an idea of power due to them having access to lots of different expensive and non-seasonal fruits and vegetables, with the image showing off what they have, while others, especially at the time will not be as fortunate and may not really have anything.

History of colour photography and the Autochrome:

In 1839, when photographs were seen by the public for the first time, people were disappointed that colour had not been recorded. As an alternative to this artists began to hand colour monochrome prints.

Hand colouring monochromes continued to be popular as it cheap, however it did require a steady hand and it was often difficult to mimic the exact colour and shades of real life.

Before colour could be recorded in prints it had to be understood how colour actually worked. In 1861, Scottish physicist, James Clerk Maxwell conducted an experiment that proved that all colours could be made up of a combination of red, green and blue light. Unfortunately, Maxwell’s idea only worked for the first time practically out of sheer luck, but he had planted the seed for future ideas for successful colour photography.

In the years leading up to the invention of the autochrome, there were several attempted to create colour prints. Dr. John Joly came the closest to commercial success, however the plates used had a very limited sensitivity to colour.

At the beginning of the 20th century, after experimenting with colour prints since the 1890s, the Lumière brothers gave their first presentation of the autochrome to the French Academy of Science in 1904. By 1907, the autochrome was being produced commercially and the best part about them was that photographers could use their existing cameras.

So, how did it all work? During the manufacturing process of the autochrome plate, tiny grains of potato starch were dyed red, green or blue then spread out evenly on a glass plate. Next the plate was coated in a sticky varnish. Charcoal powder was used to fill in the gaps between the starch grains.The starch and charcoal was then flattened used a small roller. Finally, three coloured filter screens were placed on top of the glass plate and was coated with a panchromatic emulsion.

In use, autochrome plate required between 1 and 30 seconds exposure time. When taken light would pass through the colour filters of the plate to create an accurate display of the real life colours.

Emile F. Guiton:

Emile Guiton was a Jersey photographer who was particularly active during the German Occupation. However, his interest in photographs began long before this. Guiton was keen to experiment with colour after the creation of the autochrome in 1904. Stored at La Société Jersiaise, many of Guiton’s autochromes show assortments of flowers.

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What is Still Life?

‘Still Life’ are real life objects which are painted with no coordination as to each object. It is a type of art which is seen from the earliest of ancient times and is known as “still even” in the Netherlands.

History of Still Life

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In the early 1960s, the genre of Still-Life became popular in Northern Europe and it Dutch and is known to be an independent photography style. The style is originally formed in Dutch and started to become renowned for being concerned with Khar (observation with the natural world). The objects photographed are usually positioned within a frame and create the objects showcased are usually considered to symbolise religion and mortality, reflecting the artists culture. The symbolism is shown through different objects (mirrors, candles, glasses, vases, watches, crowns etc..) all of which can represent aspects such as death, power, human life, as well as wealth and beauty and were all discovered in the ancient burial sights. Therefore, still-life being the composed portray of objects was considered broad and later on they were condensed into sub categories because of the different objects being photographed being different and having a different symbolic representation.

The Romans and Greeks also made a similar form of art which was known as Frescoes which is where they painted on plaster. This art type was modified to include more religious elements, meaning that floral designs become more popular because of them representing areas around the world which are all blooming in the same vase. Moving onto becoming closer to the modern day, this overall technique was adopted by well known artist Van Gough who painted images which included sunflowers, water jugs, as well as wine bottles.

Dutch Still Life Paintings

Dutch still life paintings are famous all over the world due to their depicting objects which have underlying metaphors from the fruits, meats and flowers being pictured. The era these images were taken were known for its wealth, due to exotic luxuries being brought to the country. These luxuries being tobacco, tea, salt, sugar, spices as well as silk. Due to these elements being very celebratory, the Dutches included them into their paintings to celebrate.

Analysing Still Life Paintings

Visual analysis- In this image I can see that their is wealthiness shown in the image from the silver platter/ gold stands which is shown, symbolising richness as it is an exclusive item. The silver/ silk tablecloth has an underlying symbol of power as it seems be quite expensive if silk. Their are lots of food elements on the table, most from exotic countries (lobster, lemon, jackfruit peaches) showing a high social status.

Emile Guiton was born in Jersey in 1879. He was part of La Société Jersiaise and was part of the executive committee there as he had a keen interest in History. Guiton had a fascination with the past and he had a particular interest in the design of Jersey houses over the centuries, in particular, the different styles of arches to be found in the island. Guiton was a keen amateur photographer and practised throughout his life. He experimented with colour at the beginning of the twentieth century in “Autochromes”. He would photograph archaeological excavations and he was one of the few people in Jersey permitted to take photographs during the German Occupation of 1940 – 1945. He recognised very early on the importance of collecting photographs and donated many images to the Société Jersiaise when he died in 1972.

Emilie’s work:

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Autochromes

Autochromes ( or Autochrome Lumière) is an early color photography process patented in 1903 by the Lumière brothers in France and first marketed in 1907. The process consists of a glass plate coated on one side with a random pattern of microscopic grains of potato starch dyed red/orange, green, and blue/violet with the grains of starch acting as colour filters and a black-and-white panchromatic silver halide emulsion is put on top. The autochrome was put into the camera with the glass side that wasn’t covered in the potato starch and emulsion was facing the lens so that the light passed through the filter layer before reaching the emulsion. Because of the light loss due to all the filtering, autochrome photographs required a much longer exposure. This mean the photographer had to use a tripod and that photographing moving subjects wasn’t practical.

Concept and Context:

Vanitas paining were especially popular in the 16th/17th century and started in the Netherlands and the term originally came from the opening lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible: ‘Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity’. Vanitas paintings would usually feature skulls, glasses, and candles to show the certainty and inevitability of death, and the transience of life.

Visual Analysis:

This painting by Pieter Claesz shows the our own mortality in several different ways, using different objects to reference elements regarding death. Firstly and most obviously is the human skull which is the main subject of this painting. It represents not only death, but how everyone is the same when they die, and it does not matter your beliefs, appearance or actions because underneath that we are all the same. Also notably is the glass resting against the skull. This once again references death, and given that it is next to the skull, it can be used to represent the life of person who died and is now just a skull, as the glass has tipped over, and there is no more liquid left, this shows how the person has run out of life, and judging from how it looks like it has been knocked over, it would be possible to assume that Claesz may have done this to show that the person died a quick death.

Another object commonly featured in Vanitas paintings is an hourglass to show the unchangeable nature of time, and how there is no stopping it. Whilst this painting features no hourglass, it features a cigarette to create the same effect, showing that we all eventually get burnt out into nothing. The use of the quill has a similar effect as well, and because as there is no inkwell, the ink on the quill represents our lives, and how every day it is used up bit by bit until we eventually run out and can no longer function and then die, which is represented by the quill running out of ink.

The Books under the skull also have a very significant meaning. They represent all of the knowledge that this person had learned in their lifetime. This helps us connect with the person, as it gives them a backstory of sorts. Schooling was obviously much harder to come by in the 16th century, and was mainly reserved for the rich and powerful. This therefore means that the skull belonged to a wealthy scholar, perhaps a writer due to the quill, giving the object a double meaning