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©
Carmen Thyssen Collection
Paul Lacroix

The Abundance of Summer

s.f
Oil on canvas.
62 x 75 cm
Carmen Thyssen Collection
Inv. no. (
CTB.1991.9
)
Not on display
  • Level 2 Permanent Collection
  • Level 1 Permanent Collection
  • Level 0 Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
  • Level -1 Temporary exhibition rooms, Conference room and EducaThyssen workshop
Level 2
Permanent Collection
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 13 15 16 17 18 22 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Recommended start of the visitClassical rooms
1 14th Century. Early Italian Painting 2 15th Century. German and Spanish Painting 3 15th Century. Early Netherlandish Painting 4 15th Century. Italian Painting 5 15th and 16th Centuries. Renaissance Portraiture 6 16th Century. Villahermosa Gallery 7 16th Century. Italian Painting 8 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 9 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 10 16th Century. Netherlandish Painting 11 Tiziano, Tintoretto, Bassano and  El Greco 12 17th Century. Caravaggio and Baroque Painting 13 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 14 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 15 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 16 18th Century. Italian Painting 17 18th Century. Italian Painting 18 18th Century. Italian Painting 19 Classical rooms 20 Classical rooms 21 Classical rooms 22 18th Century. Italian Painting 23 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 24 18th Century. French and English Painting 25 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Scenes of Daily Life and Interiors 26 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 27 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Portrait 28 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 29 19th Century. European Painting. Goya and Romanticism  
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 Recovering the ligth. Restoration of Waterloo Bridge, by André Derain 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku 54 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku 55 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku 56 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku Rodin Exhibition room
Level 0
Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
A B C D E F G H I J Hall Temporary exhibition rooms Access to Permanent Collection Entrance Access to Carmen Thyssen Collection Paseo del Prado Garden
A 17th and 18th Centuries. Old Masters B 19th Century. North American Landscape C 19th Century. French Naturalist Landscape D 19th Century. Impressionism E 19th Century. Monet and North American Impressionism F 19th Century. Gauguin and Postimpressionism G 19th and 20th Centuries. Neo Impressionism and its Wake H 20th Century. Early Avant-gardes I 20th Century. Between the Wars Painting. Cubism, Abstraction and Surrealism J 20th Century. North American Painting and Others • HALL
Level -1
Temporary exhibition rooms, Conference room and EducaThyssen workshop
Temporary exhibition rooms Conference room EducaThyssen Workshop

In the centre of the painting, a large basket full of fruit has been placed on a thick stone table top. In it, among the bunches of red, white and pink grapes, we can see some apples, plums, pears and peaches, as well as a corn-cob. The painter has used the plain and polished stone of the table to complete his composition. Thus, next to the basket, we find cranberries, blackberries, a slice of watermelon and a small punnet of strawberries. The still life ends on the left with an elegant wine glass with a long neck, full of sparkling champagne. Lacroix uses a flat, neutral background, with a soft gradation of colour. The lighting, coming from the right, gives a greyish tone to the background, while at the same time emphasising the waxy and mat surface of the fruit and the brightness of the colour range, with a prevalence of reds, purples and yellows. The painting is in an excellent state of conservation.

Paul Lacroix was a still-life painter. In his production his compositions with fruit take up a prominent position, although we also find, to a lesser extent, paintings with flowers and vegetables, like the one dated in 1865 entitled Asparagus, Tomatoes and Squash (Private Collection).

The still life analysed here, which has belonged to the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection since 1991, was acquired with the title given in this commentary, an allusion to the season when such fruit is harvested, to their quantity and quality.

The critics who have studied Paul Lacroix's works have pointed out the influence of Severin Roesen in his production. From Roesen, Lacroix borrowed the structure of his still lifes at different levels, and the presentation of some fruit. In this still life we can find references to Roesen, a painter of German origin, which Lacroix adapted to his more finished style. It is the case of the wicker basket, of the small punnet knocked over with its contents spilled on the table, of the bunches of grapes of different colours, of the fruit spilling over the edge of the table and falling on the foreground, of the vine leaves sprinkled with dew droplets, or of the champagne glass. Objects like the wicker basket or the glass, present in this composition, can also be found in Roesen's painting Still Life: Fruit and Wine (Private Collection). Another detail inspired on Roesen are the tendrils jutting out on the sides and the cut vine shoots arranged throughout the composition.

Some details of this painting also appear in another of Lacroix's works with a similar title, Nature's Bounty (New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut) in which Roesen's influence is most evident. In this composition we find again the same wicker fruit basket, the small strawberry punnet with its contents spilled on the table top, the champagne glass and the corn-cob.

The corn-cob, the only cereal in the composition, is a motif that does not belong to Roesen. Lacroix introduces it, apart from in the painting mentioned above and in the one being dealt with here, in another one entitled Flowers and Fruit (Private Collection). The corn-cob was also used, in a more explicit manner, by Charles Backofen in his painting Still Life with Fruit, dated in 1853. The choice of a cereal such as corn, proceeding from tropical America, might have been a clear allusion to the American continent, as it is a domestic produce.

Within Lacroix's catalogue, this fruit basket is one of his most restrained and elaborate works since, as Gerdts pointed out, his paintings gradually became more grandiose and ostentatious.

In this oil Lacroix draws carefully all its components: the surface of the vine leaves with their nerves and rough texture, the champagne bubbles or the translucent and mat skin of the grapes.

The fact that Lacroix, unlike his contemporaries, used a stone slab instead of marble or wood to place his still lifes has been linked to Chardin's kitchen scenes. This painting by Paul Lacroix is a representative example of mid-19th-century American still lifes.

Mar Borobia
 

s. XIX - Pintura norteamericana. CostumbrismoPaintingOilcanvas
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Spanish & Sisters x Lacroix crochet necklace

Spanish & Sisters x Lacroix crochet necklace

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Spanish & Sisters x Lacroix crochet earrings

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48.00 €

The Abundance of Summer

The Abundance of Summer

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Bordallo Pinheiro Watermelon Jar

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The Abundance of Summer. Abundancia del verano
The Abundance of Summer
Paul Lacroix

©

Carmen Thyssen Collection

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The Abundance of Summer. Abundancia del verano
The Abundance of Summer
Paul Lacroix

©

Carmen Thyssen Collection

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