TY - JOUR
AU - Southgate, M. Therese
AB - The little known animalier Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755) is only today, some two-and-a-half centuries after his death, beginning to recover some of the immense popularity he enjoyed during his lifetime. The son of Jacques Oudry, a well-known painter and successful picture dealer, Jean-Baptiste was born only weeks after his father had been made Master Painter in the Academy of St Luke in Paris. He began his formal studies at age 18 with Michel Serre but within the year had begun an apprenticeship with Nicholas de Largillierre that would last for five years. Largillierre, who was then at the height of his career, was a native Parisian but had spent his artistically formative years in Antwerp and worked in the Flemish-Dutch, rather than in the French, tradition. His influence would be evident in Oudry's canvasses for the rest of Oudry's life: the importance of surface, the necessity for detail, and the reverential depiction of objects, imbuing them with a life of their own. His father's influence would also be evident for the remainder of Oudry's life, for he had learned from him the art of administration—eventually becoming director of the Beauvais tapestry works—and the art of salesmanship, raising the latter to a pitch worthy of any 20th-century bait-and-switch huckster. Paris in the first half of the 18th century was an entrepreneur's paradise. With the death of the old king in 1715 and the accession to the throne of the 10-year-old Louis XV, the demand of the nobility and the bourgeoisie for novelty was insatiable. Much of it took the form of demand for new possessions, especially in the form of interior decorations for their Paris apartments, whether it was in the form of small rococo sculptures or custom-sized over-door or over-mantle paintings. Oudry was only too willing to oblige, and he profited handsomely. He would accommodate the wishes of his patron, not only in size or format of the work, but in the patron's pocketbook as well. When a prospective buyer, for example, demurred at the prohibitive price of a large work, Oudry would offer to paint a new, smaller copy at a lesser price. Such was quite possibly the case with Still Life With Monkey, Fruits, and Flowers (cover ). The original of Still Life With Monkey, Fruits, and Flowers was a buffet piece more than 8 feet high by 6 feet wide, and it was priced at 1200 livres. (The average bourgeois had an annual income of about 3000 livres, a professor at the Sorbonne, 1900.) In this version, one of two, the number of objects that appeared in the original buffet piece has been reduced, and they have also been rearranged. For example, the bowl of figs, once on the left, has been moved to the right. The fruit, which was once contained in a basket, is now piled into an epergne. What were once two porphyry vases with flowers is now one, and a marble table, on which fruit was once arranged, has disappeared completely, so that the fruit now sits directly on the ground. Finally, the format has been changed from rectangular to almost square and the area reduced: what was once 48 square feet of area is now some 23 square feet. However, the same flavor persists: a fantasy landscape dominated by an impish monkey furtively stealing nature's bounty. In a sense, with its perishable fruit, fragile flowers, and slight whiff of decay, it might be called a Louis XV or even rococo version of a Dutch "Vanitas." Oudry's superb draftsmanship and exquisite workmanship are shown to advantage. Note especially the flawless surface, each form as finely chiseled as the facet of a jewel. The work itself is constructed broadly on two diagonals: one separates the solid, material objects from the ephemeral sky and clouds; the other is an intersecting diagonal based on the serpentine curves of the monkey's tail. The rest is pure light and color, hard and gemlike. The light, which comes from the left, shines full on the fruit, which, although naturalistically portrayed, is finely brushed to the point of artificiality. The trees, with each of the leaves etched individually, recall the Netherlandish training Oudry would have received from his master. And, returning to the fruit in the epergne, it is obeying none of the known laws of gravity; nor is the melon slice related in any way to the melon except in color. All of these factors contribute to the playful character of the painting but, on the other hand, do not eliminate the faintly sinister quality and slightly decadent air that pervades the work. (Note, for example, amidst all the opulence, the chipped masonry.) It is the monkey, of course, placed at the very center of the painting, that is the key to the work. In the early Middle Ages, the monkey was the symbol for the devil and its human manifestation, deceit and lies; by the later Middle Ages, the monkey had become also the symbol for painting and sculpture, which are also, like magic, based on illusion and artifice and a willingness, by the spectator, to be hoodwinked. During the 17th century, especially in the highly moralizing painting of the Dutch, art was referred to as aping nature (Ars simia naturae), and, in some cases at least, the painter was rendered as a monkey. On this basis, it would be tempting to speculate whether Oudry has not painted a clever self-portrait in which he is stealing from the rich, just as the monkey is stealing from the bounty of nature, what is, ironically, his all along anyway. But that is, of course, only mischievous speculation. Joking or not, Oudry remains one of the best animaliers of not only the 18th century, but of all those that have followed. Jean-Baptiste Oudry(1686-1755)Still Life With Monkey, Fruits, and Flowers 1724. French. Oil on canvas. 141.6 × 144.8 cm. Courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Ill (http://www.artic.edu); Major Acquisitions Centennial Fund; photograph © 1999, The Art Institute of Chicago.
TI - Still Life With Monkey, Fruits, and Flowers
JF - JAMA
DO - 10.1001/jama.282.23.2193
DA - 1999-12-15
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/american-medical-association/still-life-with-monkey-fruits-and-flowers-HWUI2YHa0P
SP - 2193
EP - 2193
VL - 282
IS - 23
DP - DeepDyve
ER -