Still Life—Pitcher and Fruit
Date1926
Artist
John Graham
(Ukrainian born American painter and theorist, 1881–1961, active in the United States)
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions15 3/4 × 19 1/2 in. (40 × 49.5 cm)
frame: 20 × 24 in. (50.8 × 61 cm)
frame: 20 × 24 in. (50.8 × 61 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1975
Object number1975-39
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextGraham’s still life shows the artist’s interpretation of the objects in front of him, rather than a literal representation of them. Displaying a debt to Cubism and the art of Paul Cézanne, Graham has rendered the pitcher and fruit as an arrangement of forms and patterns, painted in flat color, and he has avoided traditional perspective. An immigrant from Europe, the artist brought his knowledge of modern European art to New York, where he studied at the Art Students League with John Sloan.